Ranking Ian Happ's place among the National League Central left fielders

Is Ian Happ primed for a career season with Kyle Tucker hitting behind him?

Cincinnati Reds v Chicago Cubs
Cincinnati Reds v Chicago Cubs | Michael Reaves/GettyImages
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2. Ian Happ, Cubs

With his proven track record, Happ is a close second to Chourio for the time being. He's squarely in the prime of his career and has really settled into his role- decent slugging, high BB and K rates, and strong work on the basepaths. Defensively, he's won three straight Gold Gloves but Statcast is up and down on his various metrics in left. Regardless, the former Cincinnati Bearcat is above average out there. Happ is officially the longest-tenured Cub (unless Rob Z counts), with Kyle Hendricks departing Chicago. He's slowly pieced together a pretty impressive resume as a Cub, and he will have Kyle Tucker hitting behind him, assumedly for his age 30 season- by far the best protection offered to him in recent years. I'll be the first to call it- Happ is going to have a career year in 2025 and break the 30-home-run mark for the first time.

3. Bryan Reynolds, Pirates

Reynolds and Happ are both entering their age 30 seasons and are pretty similar hitters. Reynolds looked like he was going to be a superstar in 2021, posting a .912 OPS and 5.9 WAR. He's regressed back to being a 2-4 WAR guy since then in some pretty hideous Pirates lineups. The Vandy product also is significantly less valuable than Churio and Happ in the field- he was in the bottom 1% of outfielders in range and has graded poorly since 2021 in most fielding categories. That being said, Reynolds continues to rank amongst the league leaders in xBA and xSLG as a result of quality contact and could easily push Happ and Chourio for the top spot if the stars align in 2025. There's again some smoke around a Reynolds trade, so he might be out of the division by Opening Day.

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