Chicago Cubs: Top 5 saves leaders in franchise history

The Chicago Cubs seem to have finally found a home-grown closer in Adbert Alzolay and he could be in the role for a long time with three years of team control left on his contract. If Alzolay can stay healthy, he could end up being one of the best closers in franchise history in terms of the number of saves he has the potential to collect. With that being said, let's look back at the team's all-time save leaders and see how many saves Alzolay will have to earn to crack the top 5.

5. Ryan Dempster: 87 saves

Over the course of his career, Ryan Dempster spent seven seasons with the Cubs and they were arguably the best years he had in MLB. Although he later became a very successful starter, Dempster spent his first four seasons in Chicago coming out of the bullpen and he was the designated closer for three of them. During that time, Dempster shut down 87 games for the Cubs out of 101 opportunities, which is good enough for fifth on this list.

And Dempster could have made it even higher on this list if he wasn't transitioned into a starter. This was the right decision however as the right-hander logged 928.1 innings as a member of the rotation until he was traded to the Texas Rangers in 2012. The Cubs are still reaping the benefits of that trade as one of the returning pieces for Dempster was Kyle Hendricks.