How Are the Ex-Cubs doing? – 8/29

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

It’s been 3 weeks since the last of these posts, and there was not too much big news about former Cubs — well except for Kyle Schwarber hitting 4 homer run in one game. And Willson Contreras melting down toward an umpire.

Ex-Cubs Position players:

#	Name	Team	WAR	PA	HR	OPS	wRC+
1	Kyle Schwarber	PHI	4.5	598	49	.956	159
2	Cody Bellinger	NYY	4.3	530	26	.847	132
3	Zach McKinstry	DET	2.7	443	11	.784	117
4	Isaac Paredes	HOU	2.7	409	19	.829	133
5	Willson Contreras	STL	2.3	516	19	.788	122
6	Javier Báez	DET	1.3	387	11	.698	91
7	Mike Tauchman	CHW	1.3	323	8	.782	121
8	Victor Caratini	HOU	0.7	331	11	.733	103
9	Cam Smith	HOU	0.7	441	8	.668	88
10	Miles Mastrobuoni	SEA	0.2	172	1	.612	83
11	Tomás Nido	DET	0.2	37	0	.704	100
12	Ildemaro Vargas	ARI	0.1	48	1	.633	70
13	Vidal Bruján	3 Tms	0.0	78	0	.591	68
14	Tucker Barnhart	TEX	0.0	15	0	.564	72
15	Travis Jankowski	3 Tms	0.0	50	0	.575	56
16	Luis Vázquez	BAL	-0.2	37	1	.412	8
17	Gage Workman	2 Tms	-0.2	17	0	.485	38
18	Christopher Morel	TBR	-0.3	253	10	.684	87
19	Jorge Soler	LAA	-0.3	315	12	.680	88
20	Jon Berti	CHC	-0.4	107	0	.492	42
21	Alexander Canario	PIT	-0.4	194	4	.588	63
22	Matt Mervis	MIA	-0.5	134	7	.637	71
23	Nick Martini	COL	-0.5	111	1	.582	49
24	Kris Bryant	COL	-0.5	41	0	.400	-5
25	Jason Heyward	SDP	-0.5	95	2	.494	38
26	Joc Pederson	TEX	-0.6	224	7	.609	74
27	Nick Castellanos	PHI	-0.7	520	16	.703	92
28	Jeimer Candelario	CIN	-0.7	91	2	.410	10
29	Martín Maldonado	SDP	-0.8	161	4	.572	61

Of all the bad moves the Cubs’ front office made after 2016 (and there were several), not offering arbitration to Schwarber was probably the worst. They did have the chance to bring him back when he was a free agent, but he chose to go to the Phillies. Instead, he went to Washington, was traded to the Red Sox, and finally landed in Philadelphia. He will be a free agent again this season, so it will be interesting to see if he stays in Philly.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/30439308/chicago-cubs-make-kyle-schwarber-free-agent-tender-contract-kris-bryant-others

Meanwhile, another former Cub had a very bad night recently:

Cam Smith finally had a home run for the first time since June 28th – so perhaps the Cubs offensive malaise has leaked out to former prospects. With Parades and Wesneski injured, the Tucker trade is not providing much value to the Astros.

One guy who is doing well is Cody Bellinger, who continues to hit – and stay healthy – for the Yanks. The Yankees very briefly fell out of a playoff spot, but look to have gotten back on track recently.

Ex-Cubs Pitchers

#	Name	Team	RA9-WAR	G	IP	ERA
1	Aroldis Chapman	BOS	3.0	57	52.0	1.04
2	Jason Adam	SDP	2.2	63	63.2	1.84
3	Pierce Johnson	ATL	1.6	52	49.0	2.20
4	Shawn Armstrong	TEX	1.4	56	57.2	2.50
5	Trevor Megill	MIL	1.3	49	46.0	2.54
6	Shelby Miller	2 Tms	1.3	46	45.0	2.40
7	Jeremiah Estrada	SDP	0.9	63	60.1	3.13
8	Phil Maton	2 Tms	0.9	50	48.1	2.98
9	Brendon Little	TOR	0.8	63	58.0	2.79
10	Chris Martin	TEX	0.7	39	34.1	2.36
11	Andrew Chafin	2 Tms	0.5	38	29.2	2.43
12	Rob Zastryzny	MIL	0.5	15	13.1	2.03
13	Kyle Hendricks	LAA	0.5	25	130.1	5.04
14	Chris Flexen	CHC	0.5	21	43.2	3.09
15	Tommy Nance	TOR	0.4	17	20.0	0.90
16	Hayden Wesneski	HOU	0.4	6	32.0	4.50
17	Hunter Bigge	TBR	0.3	13	15.0	2.40
18	David Robertson	PHI	0.3	7	6.1	1.42
19	Nick Burdi	BOS	0.2	4	5.1	0.00
20	Craig Kimbrel	2 Tms	0.1	2	2.0	0.00
21	Wade Miley	CIN	0.0	3	12.0	6.75
22	Michael Fulmer	2 Tms	0.0	3	5.2	4.76
23	Codi Heuer	2 Tms	0.0	3	4.2	5.79
24	Yu Darvish	SDP	-0.1	10	47.2	5.66
25	Carl Edwards Jr.	LAA	-0.1	2	3.0	9.00
26	Rich Hill	KCR	-0.1	2	9.0	5.00
27	Jesus Tinoco	MIA	-0.2	20	19.1	5.12
28	Jesse Chavez	ATL	-0.3	4	8.0	9.00
29	Scott Effross	NYY	-0.3	11	10.2	8.44
30	Ryan Pressly	CHC	-0.3	44	41.1	4.35
31	Marcus Stroman	NYY	-0.3	9	39.0	6.23
32	Brooks Kriske	2 Tms	-0.4	13	14.0	6.43
33	Richard Lovelady	2 Tms	-0.5	8	8.1	10.80
34	Mark Leiter Jr.	NYY	-0.5	52	42.2	4.22
35	Trevor Williams	WSN	-0.5	17	82.2	6.21
36	Jorge López	WSN	-0.5	26	24.2	6.57
37	Génesis Cabrera	4 Tms	-0.8	29	33.0	6.55
38	Héctor Neris	3 Tms	-1.0	35	26.2	6.75

All the best ex-Cubs pitchers are relievers. At least the top 12 are, before you get to Kyle Hendricks. The Cubs managed to beat Hendricks as part of their sweep of the Angels.

Genesis Cabrera is now with his 4th team of 2025, as he was picked up by the Minnesota Twins, who traded several relievers at the deadline.