Chicago Cubs: Top five single-season performances of the last five years

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Anthony Rizzo / Kris Bryant / Chicago Cubs (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images) /

The last half-decade has represented a golden age of Chicago Cubs baseball. Here are my top five single-season performances during that stretch.

Regardless of the bad taste a lot of Chicago Cubs fans had in their mouths heading into 2020, there’s no questioning that the last five years have represented a high-water mark in the franchise history. Not since the turn of the twentieth century has the organization enjoyed such sustained success.

Now, a team – especially a championship-winning one – is greater than the sum of all its parts and this Cubs group is no exception. We’ve seen players on the North Side take home Rookie of the Year, MVP and Cy Young honors. We’ve also had All-Star selections, dominant postseason showings and historic stretches unlike anything seen in generations.

This core set a new single-season franchise record for wins, advanced to three consecutive postseason berths, won a World Series and reigned supreme in the National League Central twice with another pair of Wild Card nods. It’s been an amazing ride – even as the window rapidly closes.

During the last five years, there have been more than a handful of performances worthy of remembrance. Here’s my stab at choosing a handful that will stand the test of time.

Kris Bryant / Chicago Cubs (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images) /

Chicago Cubs: #5 – Kris Bryant’s 2016 National League MVP campaign

At this point, there’s little more Kris Bryant could have accomplished in his career. He burst onto the scene in 2015, winning National League Rookie of the Year and leading the Cubs within four games of a World Series. He followed up that narrow miss by finishing the job in 2016 with a historic season.

Bryant lead the Senior Circuit with 121 runs that season, appearing in all but seven of Chicago’s regular season contests. He slashed .292/.385/.554 for a .939 OPS that ranked fourth in the National League. There’s little the reigning Rookie of the Year didn’t do, really.

He set a career-high with 39 home runs and 102 RBI while dramatically slashing the strikeout rate from his rookie campaign. Come October, Bryant just kept trucking, leading the offensive charge with a trio of long-balls amid 20 knocks.

It might seem crazy that Bryant’s 2016 NL MVP season ranks fifth on this list. But it speaks to the depth the Cubs have enjoyed in recent years – and the number of unbelievable performances we’ve seen.

Javier Baez / Chicago Cubs (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images) /

Chicago Cubs: #3 – Baez and Yelich take it down to the wire in 2018

Most Cubs fans view 2018 as the beginning of the end when it comes to the team’s prospective chances at becoming a modern-day dynasty. The team dropped a winner-take-all Game 163 at home to the rival Milwaukee Brewers, then followed suit by losing the NL Wild Card Game to the Colorado Rockies, of all teams.

The biggest bright spot was undoubtedly Puerto Rican standout Javier Baez. El Mago finished runner-up to the Brewers’ Christian Yelich but permanently put himself in the national spotlight with his performance.

Baez not only put the team on his shoulders as teammate Kris Bryant battled a shoulder injury that sapped his power – but he showed he’s more than an offensive threat. On a near-daily basis, he was making highlight-reel defensive players while also putting up some impressive numbers with the bat.

With a league-leading 111 RBI and a personal-best 129 OPS+, Baez set the tone for the Cubs offensively. He ripped 40 doubles – and a staggering 47 percent of his hits on the season went for extra-bases. Night after night, he pulled a rabbit out of his hat – and that showing won’t soon be forgotten.

Anthony Rizzo / Chicago Cubs (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) /

Chicago Cubs: #3 – An overlooked dominant showing from Rizzo

Given he won NL MVP in just his second big league season, it’s not hard to see why people paid far more attention to Bryant than Anthony Rizzo. The sweet-swinging first baseman has emerged as one of the most consistent performers in the league – and is the Cubs’ unofficial captain.

For me personally, what Rizzo did on the field in 2016 surpasses what his fellow corner infielder accomplished. Not only did he bring home a Gold Glove, a Platinum Glove and a Silver Slugger (not to mention a third-straight All-Star appearance), but he showed why Theo Epstein has long considered him to be a near-untouchable for this franchise.

That year, Rizzo tied a career-high with 32 home runs and 43 doubles – to go along with an accompanying .292/.385/.544 line. Over the course of 676 plate appearances, he struck out just 108 times while drawing 74 free passes – just further reinforcement of his impeccable approach and eye at the dish.

After a dreadful offensive showing in the NLDS, Rizzo tallied an OPS north of 1.000 in both the League Championship and World Series, helping the Chicago Cubs erase more than a century of disappointment and sorrow on a rainy night in Cleveland.

Kyle Hendricks / Chicago Cubs (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images) /

Chicago Cubs: #2 – The Professor caps off a magnificent season in style

The thing that stands out more than the historic offensive performance of the 2016 Cubs team is the depth and quality featured in its starting rotation. Anchored by reigning Cy Young winner Jake Arrieta and a pair of Cy Young finalists in Jon Lester and Kyle Hendricks, Chicago rode their horses to history.

For Hendricks, it marked the year he began drawing near-incessant comparisons to former Cub and Hall of Famer Greg Maddux. Both showcased a soft-tossing, location-driven approach to pitching, something that’s lost in the modern game.

The right-hander tossed 190 innings of 2.13 ERA ball – setting the bar amongst big league starters that year. In 30 starts, Hendricks notched a pair of complete games and limited opponents to just 6.7 hits per nine. But where he really stood tallest was October.

In five postseason starts, Hendricks was masterful – allowing just four earned runs in 25 1/3 innings (1.42 ERA). He toed the rubber in arguably the two biggest games of the year for the Cubs – the pennant-clinching start against the Dodgers at Wrigley Field and Game 7 of the Fall Classic and – well, we all know how that wound up.

Jake Arrieta / Chicago Cubs (Photo by Jared Wickerham/Getty Images) /

Chicago Cubs: #1 – Arrieta takes it to otherworldly heights in 2015

We’ll likely never see another run of dominance comparable to what Jake Arrieta put together in 2015, especially in the second half. The nail in the coffin? Silencing a raucous PNC Park crown with a complete game, five-hit shutout for the Cubs’ first postseason win since 2003.

That start announced to the baseball world Chicago’s arrival as a force to be reckoned with. But what Arrieta did to that point made even a louder statement – once that will live on in record books and the memories of those of us who watched him work that year.

His 0.75 second-half ERA wasn’t just great – it was the best ever. His 1.77 ERA on the year? Yeah, that hadn’t been accomplished by a Cubs hurler in nearly a century. Arrieta led all of baseball with four complete games, including three shutouts. While wins aren’t everything – especially in today’s world, he led all big leaguers with 22 wins along with a 5.9 H/9 and 0.4 HR/9.

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I don’t know if we’ll ever see anything like what we saw from Arrieta again. I’m not even 30 yet – so that’s saying a lot. But the simple truth is this: he was that good. He didn’t just dominate – he wrote the book on what domination looks like for Cubs fans.

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