Chicago Cubs Players Who Flew Under The Radar In 2019

Chicago Cubs baseball is closing in and it is closing in fast! Before the season gets rolling (finally), let's take a look at a list of players who's 2019 seasons flew under the radar. Keep a close eye on these guys in 2020.

Ian Happ

Ian Happ spent 99 games in AAA Iowa in 2019 to work on his swing. The extra focus
paid off to the tune of a 127 wRC+ in 58 games after he was recalled last season.

If you're not already aboard the Ian Happ hype train for 2020, you're running out of time. Following a disappointing 2018 season where he hit a meager .233 while striking out in 36% of his plate appearances, Happ failed to make the Cubs opening day roster in 2019. The Cubs instead opted to send him to AAA Iowa so he could get regular playing time while sharpening his approach at the plate. Early returns were promising, but nothing too special. Then he started to get hot in the summer months, eventually earning himself a call-up to the big league roster in late July. From there, Happ re-asserted himself as a major threat with the bat slashing .264/.333/.564 while cutting his strikeout rate down to 25%. His major improvements at the plate should not be ignored by Cubs fans. Happ is firmly back as one of the better hitters on the Cubs roster.

Victor Caratini/Willson Contreras

Arguably the best catching duo in the MLB, Willson Contreras and
Victor Caratini are a key cog in the Cubs engine.

I contemplated separating these two and discussing their success separately, but I think its crucial to understand how these two work in tandem with one another. First, lets focus on Willy's 2019 season. Following a career low ISO in 2018 (.141), Contreras then set career highs in ISO (.261), HR (24), and wRC+ (127). Contreras was on fire for most of the season until a hamstring injury landed him on the IL in early August. Contreras, like many everyday catchers, can be prone to injuries at times. However, it is very difficult to justify leaving his bat out of the lineup.

Fortunately, that's where Victor Caratini steps in. Unlike most backup catchers, Caratini profiles well both offensively and defensively. His offense took another step last season slashing .266/.348/.447 (all career highs). This type of output from your backup catcher allows more rest to be allocated for Contreras throughout the season. Hopefully David Ross can capitalize on Caratini's improvements across the board and either rest Contreras more frequently or be more free to move him around the diamond (like LF where Contreras has made 34 appearances in his career).

Jason Heyward

Just don't bat him leadoff, and Jason Heyward will make things happen.

Say what you want about Jason Heyward and his contract, but the guy is a hard worker and always gives 100%. Cubs fans have loved to rag on Heyward throughout his Cubs career, but few have recognized the true improvements he's made at the plate since 2016. Early on last season, it looked as though J-Hey had finally put it all together and was turning into the $180M man the Cubs signed. However, his final numbers on the season ended up leaving something to be desired (.251/.343/.429 wRC+ 101). Look at those numbers in just a vacuum, and you might think it was another subpar season from the Cubs highest paid player. Dive a little deeper though, and you'll see something more.

Heyward's wRC+ by month was as follows: 141, 62, 147, 94, 58, 109. So what happened in May (62) and August (58)? Well, Joe Maddon tried to slot J-Hey into the top spot in the order, where he wasn't built to sustain success. Hitting in the leadoff spot, Heyward stumbled to a .147/.252/.302 slash line thanks in large part to an anemic .153 BABIP. However, when hitting lower in the order, Heyward found much more success, slashing .290/.372/.485 (wRC+ 122) when hitting between 5th and 7th in the order. Heyward also lowered his overall soft contact rate to a mere 17.7% while upping his hard contact rate to 35.2%. All signs have J-Hey trending in the right direction, so long as he's deployed properly.

Kris Bryant

Kris Bryant is so good at baseball that his incredible 2019 season wasn't even good enough to
crack the top 3 of his best seasons. News flash: This guy is pretty good.

How can a former top prospect, former NL rookie of the year, and former NL MVP fly under the radar?

Because somehow after all of that, people STILL don't give him enough respect. It is not farfetched to say that in the first couple months of last season, Kris Bryant should definitely have been getting some MVP chatter. In the month of May alone, Bryant slashed a blistering .333/.443/.719 (wRC+ 193) while hitting 10HR. Now he did cool down slightly over the course of the season as his strikeout rate rose, but he still finished with an incredible .282/.382/.521 slash line (wRC+ 135). KB is definitely in the discussion for a top 10 talent in this league, and people need to be treating him as such.

Alec Mills

"Hi, Rob Manfred? Yes, I'd like to report a theft. The Cubs just straight
 up stole Alec Mills from the Kansas City Royals"

Does anyone remember how the Cubs acquired Alec Mills? They traded one of their outfield prospects (Donnie Dewees) to the Royals in what looked like a basic swap to balance out two systems that were top heavy at specific positions. But then the Cubs eventually got Dewees back, and Mills quietly turned into a major asset.

You're forgiven if you didn't quite notice Mills the last two seasons, but he's slowly been establishing himself as a strong bullpen option and swingman for the Cubs. While his numbers at AAA have left something to be desired, Mills has lived up to the task when called upon at the big league level. He's successfully been deployed as a spot starter, long man, and high leverage reliever, culminating is SIERAs of 3.12 and 3.67 in 2018 and 2019 respectively (league average is 3.90). You would be wise to keep a keen eye on Mills this coming season.

Tyler Chatwood

Tyler Chatwood finally started to show last season why he was coveted by
Theo Epstein and the Cubs front office back in 2018.

Theo Epstein haters love to pound him for signing Tyler Chatwood. And sure, there's some good reason for it. Chatwood was signed to a 3yr/$38M contract prior to the 2018 season, where he promptly walked nearly a hitter per inning en route to a 5.30 ERA. Many were quick to judge the move as awful, and they were probably correct at the time. Things didn't get much better in the first half of 2019 as Chatwood was lit up for a 4.40 ERA (4.67 FIP). However, Chatwood flipped a switch in the second half of the season to the tune of a 2.84 ERA (2.55 FIP). He finished the season with a career high K/9 (8.69) and had cut his walk rate roughly in half. He even showed some promise as a starter in a couple of spot starts, rejuvinating some of the hope many of us had in him and possibly turning himself into an asset in 2020 either as a starter or a reliever.

Yu Darvish

Yu Darvish finally blessed Cubs fans in the second half of last
season with all the strikeouts he could get his hands on

I made a post back in early August about how Yu Darvish was having a quietly dominant season. A month and a half later, it wasn't so quiet anymore.

If you looked just at his season numbers, Darvish's season would appear as a good, but not great one. But that doesn't do it justice at all. He struggled out of the gate in April and parts of May, but as the season went on, he settled in more and more. At the end of the first half, Darvish's ERA was sitting north of 5 and there was a lot of people screaming for his head.

They weren't ready for what was about to happen.

In the second half of 2019, Darvish popped off to the tune of a 2.76 ERA (2.83 FIP 2.37 xFIP 2.45 SIERA) and an insane 13.00 K/9 and 0.77 BB/9! Darvish was finally showing Cubs fans what he was all about and why he was worth the money they paid for him. He could have had an even better season if not for an abnormally high HR rate. The odd thing about that though is Darvish's GB rate was near his career high and his hard contact rate was lower than it had been in a few years, suggesting that was more of an aberration than anything.

Whatever amount of pitching we get to see from Darvish in 2020 should be a real treat.

And so ends my list of Chicago Cubs players that flew under the radar in 2019. Keep an eye out for these guys in the abridged 2020 season, they could all be primed for a breakout in one way or another.