Chicago Cubs: Ex-Cubs who dominated the team after moving on

A number of popular Chicago Cubs players had gone on and played elsewhere after wearing North Side colors. Some of them made the Cubs pay for parting ways.

Throughout the history of the Chicago Cubs, it has been pretty rare to see a fan favorite finish their careers with the Cubs. Ernie Banks and Ryne Sandberg are a few exceptions, but most other Cub greats have gone on to either finish their careers with another team or even see their best years/biggest accomplishments with another team.

Some of these former Cub heroes take “revenge” on their former team and put up some good numbers when they play the North Siders. It is rarely out of actual spite, but fans can get irritated when they see someone who used to be a Cub just tearing it up against their team

Common phrases uttered by fans when this happens: “Man remember when he used to do that with us?” Or, “Where the heck was this when he was a Cub?”

Here is a list of players who were once Chicago Cubs, left in any way (trade, free agent signing) and did a lot of damage against the Cubs in another uniform.

Chicago Cubs: There are many reasons this is considered the worst trade in franchise history.

If you ever go up to a Cubs fan who is over 60 and you mention “Brock for Broglio” to them, you will guaranteed get a disgusted reaction. Back in early 1960s the Cubs had a young outfielder named Lou Brock. Brock as a young kid was a mediocre ballplayer who was eventually dealt to the St. Louis Cardinals for a package that was centered around a pitcher named Ernie Broglio in 1964.

Brock ended up playing 16 years in St. Louis and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1985. He finished with 3,023 hits, 938 stolen bases and a career .293/.343./.410 slash. Broglio pitched in 59 games as a Cub and posted a 5.40 ERA and 1.8 WHIP. This trade hurts real bad.

Brock played in 256 games against the Cubs and hit .334/.378/.479 with 20 homers, 103 RBI and an .856 OPS. He had more hits against the Cubs (342) than any other team he faced. In fact that is more hits than he had in his 327 games as a Cub (310). Safe to say Brock made sure the Cubs would not forget who they traded away.

Chicago Cubs: His number might be retired at Wrigley Field, but Greg Maddux will be widely remembered as an Atlanta Brave.

Greg Maddux was just hitting his prime when the Atlanta Braves snagged him without much fight from the Cubs when he hit free agency in 1993. Maddux was coming off an absolutely dominant 1992 season where he posted a 2.18 ERA, good enough for NL Cy Young honors. After joining the Braves in 1993 he embarked on a historical stretch in Atlanta that saw him pitch to a 2.63 ERA and 2.95 FIP in 2,526 2/3 innings (363).

Maddux eventually came back to the Cubs in 2004 before being traded in 2006 to pitch his final years as a Padre and Dodger, but most of his starts against the Cubs were as a Brave. He made the Cubs pay every time he faced him…like all teams honestly did. It just felt worse knowing Maddux was once a rising star with the Cubs and that they could have kept him long term.

In 24 career starts against the Cubs (20 as a Brave) he posted a 2.65 ERA, 0.961 WHIP and tossed three complete games. He totaled 169 2/3 innings in those 24 starts and surrendered 50 earned runs and struck out 117 Cub hitters. 1999 was the only year he saw the Cubs score double-digit runs off him in two starts. Many might remember in 1997 when he threw a 76-pitch complete game against the Cubs at Wrigley Field. It’s still maddening they let him go in 1993.

Chicago Cubs: While some might not remember, Derrek Lee’s damage against the Cubs was brief but brutal.

After being part of the 2003 Marlins which broke the hearts of Cubs fans, Derrek Lee was acquired for Hee-Seop Choi the following season. For the next seven years Lee became a fan favorite at Wrigley Field. A two-time All Star, Lee hit .298/.378/.524 with 179 home runs and 574 RBI in 924 games a Cub. He was traded away to Atlanta in late 2010 and eventually ended up being dealt from Baltimore to the Pittsburgh in 2011.

This is a bit different than the first two cases. Lee’s tenure with the Pirates was fairly brief and was at the very end of his career. The Cubs were lucky to get Lee’s prime years. Regardless, Lee destroyed Cubs pitching when he faced them as a Bucco in 2011. Sample size was fairly small, five games and 20 at-bats. He made the most of that though putting up a slash of .474/.500/.947 with a 1.447 OPS, three homers and nine RBI.

Why mention this if the sample size was small? Mainly due to the fact that one of those home runs he hit was a go-ahead grand slam at Wrigley Field in the pouring ran off Carlos Marmol with two outs in the ninth. Yeah it was September 3 and the Cubs were going nowhere, but it was still a brutal loss. His other two home runs against the Cubs were hit in his Pirates debut at PNC Park, the first one was off Carlos Zambrano.