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5 Chicago Cubs players you definitely forgot about
Baseball is a sport where there is always somebody in the minor leagues ready to fill a roster spot, which results in a lot of new faces going in and out of dugouts over the course of a season. It's pretty rare nowadays to have the same roster for multiple years in a row, meaning guys are shuffled in and out, or traded all the time. While the Chicago Cubs had the same core of players for several years up until 2021, there were always random guys that popped up around them. Some of them were relief pitchers on one-year deals, and some were just guys who came out of nowhere to pounce on their major-league opportunity. In any case, here are five guys you probably forgot played for the Chicago Cubs.
5 Chicago Cubs players you definitely forgot about - Mark Zagunis
The Cubs selected Mark Zagunis in the third round of the 2014 draft out of Virginia Tech, where he played as a catcher. Eventually, he made the full transition into an outfielder during his time in the Cubs minor league system, and he was called up to the majors for the first time in 2017. He made sporadic appearances for the next two seasons until he made the opening-day roster in 2019.
Zagunis showed promising signs at times in his career, being a finalist for the Johnny Bench Award in college and hitting 13 bombs in Iowa in 2017. However, his production at the major league level was never up to par: career slash line of .200/.313/.586. After being released by the Cubs in 2020, Zagunis signed with the Lancaster Barnstormers in March of 2022, where he won the Atlantic League Championship with them.
5 Chicago Cubs players you definitely forgot about - Koji Uehera
After spending nearly 10 years pitching in Japan, Koji Uehara made the switch to MLB in 2009. He had a pretty successful run with four different teams, which culminated in a World Series championship as the Red Sox closer in 2013. He even won the ALCS MVP that year, in addition to getting the final out of the World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals.
Uehera was teammates with many prominent Cubs on that team, including David Ross, Jon Lester, John Lackey, and Ryan Dempster.
Uehara spent his last MLB season in Chicago, as the Cubs signed him to a $6 million deal when he was 42 years old. In 43 innings, the veteran righty had a 3.98 ERA. After another brief stint in Japan, Uehara retired from baseball in 2019 at the age of 44.
5 Chicago Cubs players you definitely forgot about - Eric Sogard
It feels like a lifetime ago when Eric Sogard was on the Cubs, but that fever dream was in 2021. After spending several years with the Brewers, and seemingly only getting hits against the Cubs, Sogard signed a minor league contract with the Cubs after the pandemic shortened 2020 season. Although he made the 40-man-roster, Sogard's time in Chicago was not great. In fact, he probably would have been more effective as a reliever as he made 5 appearances on the mound. He was designated for assignment and released in July, and has not signed with a team since then.
5 Chicago Cubs players you definitely forgot about - Jon Jay
The question of "who will be the Cubs leadoff hitter?" has quite literally been a constant since Dexter Fowler signed with the Cardinals after 2016. However, in 2017 outfielder Jon Jay provided a temporary answer to the problem. In his one and only season in Chicago, Jay hit .296 and got on base at a stellar .374 clip while hitting leadoff in 53 of his 141 games. After leaving the Cubs in 2017, Jay spent time with the Royals, Diamondbacks, White Sox, and Angels before retiring in April of 2022.
5 Chicago Cubs players you definitely forgot about - Eddie Butler
Believe it or not, Eddie Butler was a first-round draft pick in the 2012 draft (oh the Rockies drafted him, that makes sense). The red-headed righty actually saw a few years of success in the Rockies system, and he won a rotation spot at the major league level in 2015. However, a series of pretty ugly performances over the next two years garnered him a demotion and eventual trade to the Cubs in 2017.
Next. Ranking the best Cubs' relief seasons in recent memory. dark
In his Cubs debut, Butler tossed 6 shutout innings and spent time between the back end of the Cubs rotation and AAA Iowa for the rest of the year. He finished 2017 with 3.95 ERA at the major league level, but was traded to the Rangers the following year for Cole Hamels. Since leaving the Cubs, Butler has spent time with the Korean Baseball Organization, the Chicago Dogs and most recently the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs of the Atlantic League.