Looking back at the last 10 years of Cubs spring training standouts

As “Mr. Cub” Ernie Banks once said, “Spring training means flowers, people coming outdoors, sunshine, optimism and baseball. Spring training is a time to think about being young again.”

Spring training is underway, and every year, there’s one Cub who plays out of his mind and makes us excited for the future.  Sometimes they live up to the high expectations. Other times, they leave us wanting, reminiscing about the future that once seemed to be so bright.

Let’s take a look at some of spring’s greatest stars of years past, and whether or not they followed up their unofficial spring training MVP performance with a season to be proud of.

Chicago Cubs spring training MVPs of years past: 2012 – Joe Mather

In 2012, Joe “It Doesn’t” Mather (nickname unconfirmed) had a spring for the ages.  Finishing up with a .382 average, he drove in 15 runs in 26 games and had a positively scorching 1.116 OPS.  Had he sustained that number over the course of the regular season, he would placed right between Lou Gehrig’s 1928 number and this other little known fella called Lou Gehrig in 1937.

Did he sustain it?

Absolutely not!  Joe Mather was, without hyperbole, one of the worst batters in the majors during the 2012 season.  He finished with the third worst WAR of all qualified players, batting .209 with an OPS that was basically half of his number in spring, at .581.  It’s not like Mather was dragging the Cubs down at all, though.  For one, he wasn’t an everyday starter, more a utility outfielder, and Chicago, on the whole, was abjectly terrible that year, finishing 61-101.

Unfortunately for Mather, this was his last stint in the big show.  He signed a couple of minor league deals after this, but never had much success.  He’s now the hitting coach for the Diamondbacks (isn’t irony wonderful?)

Chicago Cubs spring training MVPs of years past: 2013 – Brian Bogusevic

If Mather was a hot hitter, Brian Bogusevic was scorching.  In his spring campaign, he went 16-for-39, good for a .410 average, with eight extra-base hits.  The Cubs, meanwhile, had 16 wins that spring, meaning Bogusevic averaged a hit per win during Cactus League action.  Pretty good!

Did he sustain it?

During the regular season, Bogusevic was… fine, I guess?  In spite of his strong spring, he didn’t make the Opening Day roster due to his perceived defensive liability.  The Cubs called him up in June, where he hit .273 over 40 something games before being traded.  Not great, not terrible, just kinda there.  Chicago ended up trading him to the Marlins for Justin Ruggiano, who also failed to make any sort of major impact with the Cubs.

Chicago Cubs spring training MVPs of years past: 2015 – Kris Bryant

Finally, the future his here.  After years of miring in somehow not last place (thanks Astros!), the first of the whiz kids the Cubs placed their hopes on made his name known in a hurry come spring.  Bryant had a blistering spring training performance, knocking in nine home runs to go with a .425 average.  In one game against Cleveland, Javier Baez, Jorge Soler and Bryant all hit consecutive homers.  Only two years after being picked second overall in the MLB Draft, Bryant looked ready to go.

Did he sustain it?

In order to game the system and gain an added year of control, the Cubs kept Bryant in the minor leagues for the first few weeks of the 2015 season.  When they did call him up (after he somehow “improved his defense” in three short weeks), Bryant somehow lived up to the hype.

He hit .275 with 26 home runs, including one 495-foot moon shot off the then-new video board.  Following the Cubs’ loss in the NLCS to the Mets, Bryant was named the unanimous National League Rookie of the Year award winner. The very next season, he earned NL MVP honors and helped the Cubs erase a 108-year championship drought.

Good thing they kept him in Iowa those three weeks, right?

Chicago Cubs spring training MVPs of years past: 2016 – Too many options

Look, I tried.  I really tried!  A bunch of players were good this spring, and there was no standout amongst them.  Take a look at these stats: Kris Bryant and Munenori Kawasaki led the team in hits with 18, Addison Russell hit six home runs, Bryant and Jason Heyward both drove in 14 runs.

Meanwhile, Matt Szczur, Miguel Montero, Jeimer Canderlario and Anthony Rizzo all had an OPS above 1.000.  Not to mention the pitching, where Jon Lester had a 2.12 ERA and Kyle Hendricks struck out 30 batters with a 1.08 WHIP.  All pretty solid, don’t you think?

Did they sustain it?

You may not know this, but the Cubs won the World Series in 2016.  So, in a word, yes.

Chicago Cubs spring training MVPs of years past: 2017 – Ian Happ

As we wrote at the time, Happ didn’t have the most auspicious start to his 2017 spring.  Beginning preseason with a middling .250/.250/.375 slash line (at least the numbers look aesthetically pleasing when you ignore context), he went on a tear to wrap up the campaign, finishing with an excellent line of .383/.441/.750.  More than that, he led the club with 12 extra base hits and 21 RBI.  Happ also, to use a technical term, hit dingers.

Did he sustain it?

If you asked this question in May of 2017, the answer would have undoubtedly been yes.  6 games into his major league career (what do you mean small sample size?), Happ was hitting as well as Bryce Harper, after starting the season in AAA due to a log-jam in the middle infield.  He regressed towards the mean in the back half of the year, finishing up with a .253 average while hitting 24 home runs.  Pretty good, but he also struck out in over 30% of his plate appearances.  While he didn’t live up to his lofty Spring Training stats, by no means did Happ have a disappointing rookie year.

Chicago Cubs spring training MVPs of years past: 2018 – Mike Freeman

Who?

I have literally no memory of this man.  Somehow, Mike “I want to break” Freeman (nickname unconfirmed) shone as the forgotten star of the 2018 spring, hitting .408 with an OPS of 1.069 in his 22 games in Arizona.  After his disappointing call-up to end the 2017 season, he completely flipped the script.  Even then, our own Jake Misener was recommending caution, because as we’ve seen in previous years, spring numbers don’t typically translate to summer stats.

Did he sustain it?

Nope.

Freeman appeared in one game for the 2018 Cubs, a September matchup with the Pirates where he laid down a sacrifice bunt as a pinch hitter.  The Cubs released him that winter, but at least he can say that, as a member of the major league roster, he was undefeated for the 2018 season.

Freeman has spent the past few years in Ohio, first with Cleveland, and most recently with Cincinnati as a utility infielder.

Chicago Cubs spring training MVPs of years past: 2019 –  David Bote

After appearing in the 2018 season as an injury replacement for Ben Zobrist and Kris Bryant, Bote looked to make a name for himself before the start of the 2019 season.  He did just that, hitting .442 with 19 hits and 10 walks against 10 strikeouts.  He also hit a walk-off homer against the Angels on March 6, which is something I’m sure he still remembers.  His play in preseason and the beginning of the regular season earned him a five-year contract extension in April 2019.

Did he sustain it?

While he didn’t sustain his sky-high batting average in the regular season, he did manage to hit a respectable .257 with 11 home runs for the rest of the 2019 campaign. That’s about where the good news ends, though.  Bote’s performance in 2020 and 2021 dipped, hitting .200 and .199 for those seasons, respectively.  Unlike most of the Cubs’ 2019 squad, he’s still on the roster, likely due to his cheap contract.

Chicago Cubs spring training MVPs of years past: 2020 – Willson Contreras

Technically, there were two spring trainings in 2020.  The first attempt was derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic, while the second took place in the middle of summer, requiring a name change from spring training to summer camp.

For the record, that’s a much better name than spring training, but that’s not important right now.  What is important is that Willson Contreras, coming off of two consecutive All-Star starts, came into summer camp scorching, hitting home run after home run and looking strong in both inter- and intra-squad matchups.

Did he sustain it?

While Contreras wasn’t as strong as he was when the games didn’t matter, he still put up a respectful campaign in the shortened 2020 season.  He only hit .243, but knocked seven home runs and 26 RBI in 57 games played.  He also led the league in hit by pitches with 14 (take that Rizzo).  Against all odds and expectations, the Cubs made the 2020 Wild Card, where they were swept by the Marlins, and Contreras did basically nothing of note in that series.  As of this writing, he’s still with the Cubs, the last remaining piece of their infield of the future.

Chicago Cubs spring training MVPs of years past: 2021 – Joc Pederson

Joc Pederson, the newly-signed replacement for Kyle Schwarber in left field, blew past all expectations in Mesa in 2021, leading both the Cubs and MLB as a whole in home runs (8) and RBI (19), including this two-run blast. The Cubs finished camp with a 15-9 record, with Pederson’s performance raising hope for an exciting and surprising 2021 campaign.

Did he sustain it?

If the hope was for an exciting and surprising campaign, the result was a dour and disappointing slog.  The Cubs finished 71-91, blew up their World Series-winning core, and Pederson didn’t last the full year in Chicago, getting traded to Atlanta for prospect Bryce Ball.  Pederson’s tenure in Chicago was nothing special, hitting .230 with 11 home runs.  Just as with the rest of the 2021 season, it all just felt like a long sigh.

There was a three-year period where the Cubs had spring standouts that led to regular season success.  From 2014-2016, Luis Valbuena, Kris Bryant and the team, as a whole, set expectations high and surprisingly met them as the months wore on.

Other than those years, however, spring training (or summer camp) was just a way to get hope too high, only for those hopes to be dashed down the line.  Maybe Seiya Suzuki will set hopes high and live up to the billing this time around.  Only time will tell, but the odds aren’t in his favor.