How Are the Ex-Cubs doing? – All-Star Break edition

A semi-regular feature showing how former Cub players are doing

* = All-Star

Ex-Cubs Position players:

#	Name	Team	WAR	G	PA	HR	RBI	OPS	wRC+
1	*Zach McKinstry	DET	3.0	88	331	8	31	.836	133
2	Cody Bellinger	NYY	3.0	88	375	16	54	.830	129
3	*Kyle Schwarber	PHI	2.8	96	426	30	69	.923	154
4	*Isaac Paredes	HOU	2.7	92	403	19	49	.826	133
5	Willson Contreras	STL	1.9	91	384	12	55	.765	118
6	Cam Smith	HOU	1.7	82	323	7	39	.765	117
7	*Javier Báez	DET	1.6	79	284	10	39	.752	110
8	Mike Tauchman	CHW	0.9	45	184	4	19	.809	129
9	Victor Caratini	HOU	0.6	66	237	10	32	.741	105
10	Miles Mastrobuoni	SEA	0.3	68	162	1	12	.609	83
11	Tomás Nido	DET	0.2	11	37	0	2	.704	102
12	Christopher Morel	TBR	0.1	65	188	7	19	.702	96
13	Tucker Barnhart	TEX	0.0	8	15	0	0	.564	72
14	Travis Jankowski	3 Tms	0.0	26	50	0	2	.575	57
15	Luis Vázquez	BAL	-0.2	11	13	0	1	.154	-68
16	Alexander Canario	PIT	-0.2	53	163	3	13	.617	72
17	Gage Workman	2 Tms	-0.2	12	17	0	2	.485	39
18	Nick Castellanos	PHI	-0.2	95	390	12	51	.751	107
19	Nicky Lopez	2 Tms	-0.3	19	28	0	1	.220	-21
20	Matt Mervis	MIA	-0.4	42	134	7	14	.637	73
21	Nick Martini	COL	-0.4	43	111	1	4	.582	50
22	Jason Heyward	SDP	-0.5	34	95	2	12	.494	39
23	Jorge Soler	LAA	-0.5	77	300	10	32	.656	82
24	Kris Bryant	COL	-0.5	11	41	0	1	.400	-4
25	Jeimer Candelario	CIN	-0.7	22	91	2	10	.410	10
26	Joc Pederson	TEX	-0.7	46	146	2	6	.507	51
27	Martín Maldonado	SDP	-1.1	56	141	4	10	.515	46

Four players who were on the Cubs major league roster at one point are All-stars. And another player, Gleyber Torres, who was a Cubs minor league also made it.

The Tigers, McKinstry and Baez, are two guys that I would not have expected to make this list after last season, as they combined for a 0.4 WAR. Baez has dropped a bit lately, but it was good enough to be voted in as an outfielder.

Schwarber and Paredes made it after other players dropped out, but they are still having very solid seasons. Parades and Cam Smith have a combined 4.4 WAR — which happens to be exactly the same as Kyle Tucker.

One player who climbed up a bit after he 3 hoe run performance against the Cubs is Cody Bellinger. He’s managed to stay healthy most of this season, although the Yankees dropped into second place about a week before the All-Star Break. Personally, I’m glad to be done with the players the Cubs parted ways with over this off-season, as they did quite well against their former team.

Ex-Cubs Pitchers

#	Name	Team	WAR	G	IP	ERA	xERA
1	*Aroldis Chapman	BOS	1.4	37	34.0	1.32	2.09
2	Trevor Williams	WSN	1.3	16	79.2	5.65	4.21
3	Phil Maton	STL	1.0	33	32.0	1.69	2.46
4	*Jason Adam	SDP	1.0	42	42.2	1.69	2.93
5	Brendon Little	TOR	0.9	39	38.1	2.11	2.82
6	Mark Leiter Jr.	NYY	0.8	38	32.1	4.18	3.20
7	*Trevor Megill	MIL	0.6	32	29.2	2.73	3.69
8	Kyle Hendricks	LAA	0.6	16	87.0	4.66	3.90
9	Jeremiah Estrada	SDP	0.5	40	37.0	3.41	3.27
10	Chris Martin	TEX	0.5	31	27.0	2.33	3.72
11	Shelby Miller	ARI	0.5	35	34.1	2.10	3.39
12	Pierce Johnson	ATL	0.4	31	28.1	3.18	3.13
13	Jorge López	WSN	0.3	26	24.2	6.57	5.41
14	Shawn Armstrong	TEX	0.3	34	36.0	3.25	3.11
15	Jesus Tinoco	MIA	0.2	20	19.1	5.12	3.23
16	Hayden Wesneski	HOU	0.2	6	32.0	4.50	4.32
17	Andrew Chafin	WSN	0.1	16	11.1	3.18	3.37
18	Nick Burdi	BOS	0.1	4	5.1	0.00	4.44
19	Scott Effross	NYY	0.0	1	1.0	0.00	0.70
20	Rob Zastryzny	MIL	0.0	15	13.1	2.03	3.06
21	Craig Kimbrel	ATL	0.0	1	1.0	0.00	13.80
22	Michael Fulmer	2 Tms	0.0	3	5.2	4.76	10.16
23	Héctor Neris	2 Tms	0.0	23	15.0	7.80	4.94
24	Codi Heuer	TEX	-0.1	1	1.1	6.75	4.71
25	Jesse Chavez	ATL	-0.1	2	3.0	6.00	6.14
26	Carl Edwards Jr.	LAA	-0.1	2	3.0	9.00	4.21
27	Richard Lovelady	2 Tms	-0.1	4	5.1	13.50	6.83
28	Wade Miley	CIN	-0.1	3	12.0	6.75	8.17
29	Marcus Stroman	NYY	-0.2	4	14.1	8.16	5.88
30	Hunter Bigge	TBR	-0.2	13	15.0	2.40	6.06

On the pitching side, all the former Cubs making the All-Star team are relievers.

Two were projects, who had limited (Adam) or no success (Megill) with the Cubs, but went on to break out elsewhere. Megill’s rise has to be particularly painful, as he’s doing great work for the Milwaukee Brewers replacing Devin Williams. His ERA has dropped steadily in the past 5 years:
2021 – 8.37 (Cubs)
2022 – 4.80 (Twins)
2023 – 3.63 (Brewers)
2024 – 2.72 (Brewers)
2025 – 2.41 (Brewers)

Meanwhile, Adam, who pitched for the Cubs in 2020 (3.29 ERA) and 2021 (5.91) has shined with the Rays and Padres, with ERAs under 2 in 3 of the past 4 seasons.

Aroldis Chapman continues to have an excellent season with the Red Sox. At one point, he looked like a good trade candidate. But a 10-game win streak have put them 3 games out of first in their division and a 2.5 game lead over the 4th place team in the Wild Card standings. So, it would be very unlikely for them to be selling.

One odd story is that of Jorge Lopez, who performed well for the Cubs in 2024 after getting cut loose by the Mets. He signed a free agent deal with the Nationals, and had a sky-high ERA (despite a 6-0 record) before being DFA’s at the end of May. He has not caught on with anyone, even on a minor-league deal. He did get suspended for this, which might be the reason he has not been picked up by anyone: