Cubs News: Handing out midseason grades for the 2020 season

As we’ve reached the halfway mark of this 2020 season, here we hand out midseason grades for Chicago Cubs players.

The Chicago Cubs have reached the midway point of this abbreviated 2020 season. They are in first place in the NL Central with a mark of 18-12. While that’s something to be happy about overall, they’re in a stretch where they’ve gone 5-9 following a 13-3 start.

In terms of individual performances, the results have been mixed. Here, we hand out midseason grades for Cubs players. We’ll start with the pitchers, then move on to the position players.

Dan Winkler: B+. The expectations weren’t that high for Winkler when he came over from the Atlanta Braves this offseason, and he got off to a bit of a rough start this year when he gave up a run in three of his first four outings. However, he’s currently working on a stretch of five straight scoreless appearances covering six innings. Walks are still an issue; he’s given up eight in 9 1/3 innings.

Colin Rea: B-. In his one start, he gave up three runs in 3 1/3 innings against Milwaukee on August 15. Out of the bullpen, he’s given up just two runs in seven innings of work. While he’s likely not a long-term solution as a starter, perhaps Rea could have some value moving forward as a mop-up guy or long reliever.

Duane Underwood Jr.: F. This was supposed to be a season in which Underwood would hopefully break through at the major league level, and there was a lot of optimism coming into the season. Instead, he’s given up runs in six of his nine appearances, five of those being multiple runs. Time is running out for Underwood to figure it out for this team.

Kyle Ryan: C-. Ryan has been called on ten times and given up runs in just three of those outings, but his ERA of 6.23 has to be a disappointment after he was expected to take on a big role in the bullpen this year. He almost blew two games, August 1 against Pittsburgh and August 4 against Kansas City, but the team managed to escape with a win both times. The Cubs could use the 2019 version of Ryan in the second half.