Ranking the top 5 free agent signings in Chicago Cubs history

5 best free agent signings in Chicago Cubs history: #2 – Andre Dawson

You can’t have this list and not have Andre ‘The Hawk’ Dawson at or near the top of it. The main thing separating Dawson from the top spot is something that he, like so many other Cubs icons, failed to bring home: that World Series ring.

But that doesn’t take anything away from Dawson’s time with Chicago. The veteran, thankful to be free from the shoddy playing surface up in Montreal and the injuries that accompanied it, came to Wrigley in 1987 and immediately proved he had plenty left in the tank, hitting 49 home runs and driving in 137 en route to NL MVP honors.

That marked the first of five-straight All-Star appearances for Dawson, who also brought home a Silver Slugger and a pair of Gold Gloves during that run. Although he never replicated those MVP-caliber numbers, he was still a major factor on those Cubs teams in the late 80s and early 90s.

Dawson’s Cubs career included 174 home runs (and, with it, the seventh-highest slugging percentage in franchise history) and, at the end of his 21-year career in Major League Baseball, a plaque among baseball’s immortals in Cooperstown.