Where does Patrick Wisdom rank all-time among Chicago Cubs rookies?

Chicago Cubs third baseman Patrick Wisdom just keeps hammering the baseball. After hitting home runs number 24 and 25 on the 2021 season on Saturday night against the White Sox, Wisdom is now just one home run shy of the team’s all-time rookie record of 26 held by Kris Bryant in 2015.

So, with about a month left to go in the season, where does Wisdom’s stats rank among Cubs rookies? Let’s take a look at some of the other great Cubs rookie campaigns.

Chicago Cubs Greatest Rookie Seasons of All-Time – #10: Dwight Smith (1989)

In 1989, the Cubs won their first division title in five years, largely due to the success of two rookies who finished one and two in the NL Rookie of the Year voting that year. Jerome Walton, who we’ll see later on this list, deservedly gets a lot of credit for what he accomplished that year, but he tends to overshadow what was also a great rookie campaign from Dwight Smith.

Smith was a third-round pick of the Cubs in 1984 before he finally made his debut with the big league club on May 1, 1989 at 25 years old. He went hitless in his first game, against the San Francisco Giants, but he would collect two hits each of the next two games and took off from there.

After a three-hit performance on June 16 in Montreal, Smith was batting a whopping .375. He slowed down a little bit after that, but the numbers are still impressive: In 109 games, Smith finished batting .324 with an .875 OPS, including nine home runs and 52 RBI. Smith went 3-for-15 with a double in the National League Championship Series against the Giants.

Smith wouldn’t do much after that, though he hung around for a few more seasons with the Cubs and actually finished with a .300 batting average in 1993. He also earned a World Series ring as a member of the Atlanta Braves in 1995.