Cubs “One Hit” wonders – Honorable Mention

An 11-part series recounting former Cubs players who had only one breakout season. Here are the rules:

• Must be 3 WAR (from Baseball Reference) or more in the breakout season
• Must have had the breakout season as a Cub
• Breakout season must be at least 1/3 higher than the WAR (but preferable double) of their next highest WAR season
• Must have had their breakout season in the past 40 years (since my fandom started)

First up are some players who don’t quite qualify, but were close:

Adrian Sampson – 2022
2.3 WAR
+1.1 WAR = 47.8% improvement

Sampson didn’t make the cut from a WAR perspective, but this was definitely his best season in the majors. He only was above 0 WAR in one of his previous four seasons, and logged a 3.11 ERA over 104 innings, including 19 starts.

It was an odd year for the Cubs team, as their rotation also featured Marcus Stroman, Justin Steele, Keegan Thompson, Drew Smyly and Kyle Hendricks. But even among those non-strikeout pitchers, Sampson had the lowest K/9 rate at 6.3. Still he was relatively effective, with the lowest ERA among the bunch.

He spent 2023 in the minors for the Cubs before being traded to the Rays, and was immediately released. He pitched for the Rangers farm teams in 2024, and the Nationals farm teams in 2025, and is currently a free agent.

Here’s some irrational hopefulness about Sampson from David Kaplan back in 2022:

Chris Coghlan – 2015
2.1 WAR
+1.0 WAR = 47.6%

I was a little surprised that Coghlan maxed out in his career at a 2.1 WAR. Fangraphs tells a very different “WAR story” with a 3.1 in 2015, 2.4 in 2014 (vs 0.8 on BR) and 2.7 in his rookie year with the Marlins (vs 1.1 on BR). But at 21, he did not meet my arbitrary critera.

As an aside, here a video from Baseball Reference about Fangraphs versus Baseball Reference in how they calculate WAR.

Coghlan has a very good 2015, slashing .250/.341/.443. He did not have a great playoffs, going 1 for 12 with a single. With the signing of Jason Heyward, and with Kyle Schwarber and Jorge Soler, the outfield was getting a bit crowded. But when Dexter Fowler surprising re-signed with the Cubs on February 25th of 2015, Coghlan was seen as expendable and was traded to the Oakland Athletics. The terrible injury to Schwarber in the first week of the season ultimately convinced the Cubs to bring Coghlan back in June. He only played one more year in the majors, with the Blue Jays in 2017, getting some minor league time with the Cubs in 2018.

Here were my thought on the 2nd Coghlan trade – and the video of him leaping over Yadi Molina while with the Marlins:

Who Won the Trade – Year 2 of the Epstein/Hoyer Contention Years (2016)

Scott Servais – 1995
2.1 WAR
+0.9 WAR = 42.9% improvement

Servais was a decent (or serviceable, if you will) part-time MLB catcher over 11 seasons, 4 of which were spent with the Cubs. He managed the Mariners from 2016 to 2024, making one post-season.

I remember very little about his tenure, as 1998 was the only playoff year for the Cubs in those 4 years, and he had a -0.3 WAR. His slash line for the Cubs in 1995 was .286/.371/.560, which was crazy, as his other best slugging in his career was 4.15 with the Astros in 1993.

It was a fairly small sample size in 1995, as he had come over from the Astros mid-season with Luis Gonzalez for Rick Wilkins. Gonzalez played OK for the Cubs, but would see his career flourish after moving to the D’Backs. Meanwhile, Wilkins will be seen later in this one-hit wonder series. He only played in 52 games for the Cubs, but hit 12 home runs, which was more than he hit for any single team in a full season.

Servais played more for the Cubs than any other team, logging 416 games. He was a platoon or backup for any other team, playing a max of 85 games for the Astros in 1993, and finishing his career with the Giants, Rockies and Astros, in 120 games over 3 season.

Kosuke Fukudome – 2009
2.1 WAR
+0.9 WAR = 42.9% Improvement

One of the first prominent Japanese players signed by the Cubs, Fukudome started his career with a bang, and it was kind of all downhill from there:

Fukudome was 31 when he joined the Cubs, so he was already in the 2nd half of his career. His rookie season was not great, but he bounced back in his 2nd season, with a .259/.375/.796 slash line. He was not really a 1-hit wonder, as he had a 1.2 WAR for the Cubs in both 2010 and 2011, with an excellent on-base percentage in both years.

He was traded to Cleveland for a couple of minor leaguers in 2011, and had 41 at bats for the White Sox in 2012. He was released by the Sox, spending some time in the Yankees farm system that season before heading back to Japan. Amazingly, he played until he was 45 years old.

Welington Castillo – 2013
4.0 WAR
+1.7 WAR = 42.5% Improvement

The only player in baseball reference with the first name of Welington, Castillo played his first 5 seasons for the Cubs, but was traded to Seattle in 2015 (and then to Arizona), as the Cubs had added both Miguel Montero and Davis Ross.

He was the Cubs most valuable hitter in 2013 from a WAR perspective, but half of that was his defensive WAR. But that defensive season was quite an outlier. His defensive runs saved in 2013 was a 4, compared to -11 in 2012, -12 in 2014, -15 in 2015, -13 in 2017, -24 in 2018 and -30 in 2019.

He actually had a better offensive season in 2015, slamming 17 home runs in 274 ABs for Arizona. But he did have a career best OBP in 2013, at .349. It was in the middle of the Cubs rebuild, so there were not many great hitters, but this was an odd season.

This is another Baseball Reference versus Fangraphs WAR variation, as Castillo’s WAR was 4.0 on BR and 0.3 on Fangraphs. His best WAR on Fangraphs was his 2017 in Baltimore, where he only got a 1.9, which was 2.3 on Baseball Reference.

Kevin Orie – 1997
2.4 WAR
+1.0 = 41.7% Improvement

Orie was a big third baseman who had a promising start to his career, but never found success in the majors. He slashed .275/.350/.431 in 1997 and was 11th in the Rookie of the Year balloting. But his 8 home runs tied a career high.

After a terrible start in 1998, he was sent to the Marlins with Justin Speier for Felix Heredia, who was an effective reliever for the Cubs in a playoff season. He was better for the Marlins after the trade, with a 104 OPS+, and his 2nd highest WAR occurred for Florida in 1999.

But he spent the rest of his career in the minors with Florida, the Yankees, the Royals, the Phillies The Cubs (where he got his final 32 major league at bats in 2002), Cleveland, Milwaukee, Washington and finally Houston in 2006.

Part 2 with my #10 pick coming soon!