How Are the Ex-Cubs doing? – 7/1

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

Ex-Cubs Position players:

Name	Team	WAR	PA	HR	OPS	wRC+
Cody Bellinger	NYY	2.6	356	11	.797	125
Kyle Schwarber	PHI	2.6	366	30	.951	156
Willson Contreras	BOS	2.6	337	18	.903	146
Isaac Paredes	HOU	1.7	339	11	.763	116
Cam Smith	HOU	1.3	324	11	.683	91
Victor Caratini	MIN	0.9	239	7	.708	98
Joc Pederson	TEX	0.8	267	14	.812	126
Kyle Tucker	LAD	0.8	340	7	.714	102
Willi Castro	COL	0.5	285	6	.738	94
Ildemaro Vargas	ARI	0.4	269	7	.700	90
Nick Madrigal	LAA	0.3	52	0	.680	102
Nelson Velázquez	STL	0.2	43	3	1.001	177
Zach McKinstry	DET	0.1	208	3	.568	59
Trey Mancini	LAA	0.0	14	0	.747	91
Javier Báez	DET	0.0	82	2	.678	85
Vidal Bruján	NYM	-0.1	13	0	.258	-22
Jorge Soler	LAA	-0.1	272	11	.720	99
Owen Caissie	MIA	-0.2	231	10	.743	100
Miles Mastrobuoni	SEA	-0.2	27	0	.487	44
Reese McGuire	CHW	-0.3	34	0	.445	35
Jeimer Candelario	LAA	-0.4	20	0	.422	18
Gage Workman	DET	-0.4	38	2	.553	42
Patrick Wisdom	SEA	-0.4	44	1	.401	8
Carlos Santana	ARI	-0.5	26	0	.279	-23
Christopher Morel	MIA	-0.8	73	0	.425	18
Nick Castellanos	SDP	-0.8	122	4	.560	50

The ex-Cub in the headlines has been Willson Contreras, who has had a very difficult week. First came the horrible news of an earthquake in his native Venezuala: https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/willson-contreras-red-sox-venezuela-earthquakes/

The came his odd ejections for “showing up” umpire Nic Lentz by tapping his cap after being called out on a check-swing appeal. It seemed extremely soft of Lentz to do this, but he has a history of tossing players for disrespecting him: https://www.mlb.com/news/taylor-walls-ejected-in-ninth-inning-of-rays-loss. It’s a bad look for umpires and the game.

And to top everything off, Contreras started a bench-clearing kerfuffle after he was taunted by Cade Cavalli after a strikeout, being told to “Sit down, boy.” Cavalli was not ejected, despite using language that could be considered racially charged. Apparently, he was upset that Contreras had brushed past him earlier in the game.

Contreras certainly has had his share of contentious events through his career, but considering the circumstances, it seems like he may have had the misfortune of running into a couple of fragile dudes – who will face no repercussions for their behavior.

As far as other former Cubs’ hitters, Kyle Schwarber continues to rake, leading the league with 30 home runs. Cody Bellinger has not hit nearly as well, but his fielding has him tied with Schwarber for total WAR, just ahead of the aforementioned Contreras.

Isaac Parades and Cam Smith, who will be forever ties together in Cubs history, have a combined 3.0 WAR, although Smith is still below average as a hitter, with a 91 wRC+. Meanwhile, the guy they got traded for, Kyle Tucker, continue to struggle (relative to his salary) with a 0.8 WAR and 102 wRC+ .

Owen Caissie has been doing better, bringing his wRC+ to the average, and his WAR almost to break even. The Marline have been the hottest team in June and sticking with Caissie has been part of their success.

On the downside of things, both Carlos Santana and Christopher Morel were released. Although, Morel has already signed a minor league deal with the Mets.

Nick Madrigal Opted out of his contract with the Angels when he was DFA’d, choosing to go to the Rays on a minor league deal instead. He had actually been doing OK for the Angels, showing a higher walk rate and low strikeout rate, but absolutely no power.

Ex-Cubs Pitchers

Name	Team	RA9-WAR	WAR	G	IP	ERA	xERA
Michael Soroka	ARI	2.5	2.1	15	82.0	3.07	3.94
Sean Newcomb	CHW	1.5	1.4	31	49.2	2.54	3.59
Jason Adam	SDP	1.0	-0.1	36	32.1	2.51	3.38
Aroldis Chapman	BOS	0.9	0.9	26	24.2	2.19	2.64
Anthony Kay	CHW	0.7	0.5	17	80.0	4.50	5.36
Brooks Raley	NYM	0.7	0.5	34	31.0	2.32	3.77
Aaron Civale	ATH	0.6	0.2	14	67.2	5.05	5.28
Trevor Megill	MIL	0.5	1.4	33	32.0	3.38	2.18
Tommy Nance	TOR	0.3	0.2	30	31.0	3.48	3.94
Carl Edwards Jr.	NYM	0.2	0.0	2	6.0	1.50	2.71
Richard Lovelady	2 Tms	0.1	-0.4	33	30.1	3.86	5.67
Brad Keller	PHI	0.1	0.2	31	30.1	4.15	3.33
Pierce Johnson	CIN	0.1	-0.1	27	24.0	4.50	6.61
Brooks Kriske	ATH	0.1	0.1	2	2.2	0.00	2.41
Jeremiah Estrada	SDP	0.1	0.3	21	20.2	3.48	3.54
Mark Leiter Jr.	ATH	0.0	0.5	32	29.2	4.85	4.18
Nate Pearson	HOU	0.0	0.1	12	16.0	3.38	4.53
Caleb Kilian	SFG	0.0	0.0	34	35.0	4.11	3.91
Eli Morgan	KCR	0.0	-0.2	14	17.1	5.19	7.12
Charlie Barnes	2 Tms	-0.1	0.0	3	5.0	5.40	5.74
Codi Heuer	CLE	-0.1	0.0	7	8.0	5.63	4.82
Shawn Armstrong	CLE	-0.1	-0.1	28	24.2	4.74	4.23
Michael Rucker	SEA	-0.2	-0.1	7	7.1	7.36	3.44
Craig Kimbrel	2 Tms	-0.3	-0.1	23	23.0	5.09	4.82
Andrew Kittredge	BAL	-0.4	0.0	24	20.0	5.40	3.67
Chris Martin	TEX	-0.4	-0.2	12	10.1	7.84	7.64
Taylor Rogers	MIN	-0.6	0.1	36	30.2	6.16	4.78
Hunter Bigge	TBR	-0.7	0.1	18	19.1	6.98	3.99
Brendon Little	TOR	-1.4	-0.5	6	4.2	27.00	7.29

Michael Soroka had his ice bounce-back season interrupted by injury., but it sounds like he might be coming back sooner than expected.

2 White Sox players, Sean Newcombe and Anthony Kay are in the top 5 of ex-Cubs pitchers, part of the fuel for their surprising 2026.

And Trevor Megill, after a rough start, appears to have righted the ship and has been great in the good run the Brewers have been on. He is one of the few guys on the list who has an expected ERA much lower than the actual number. Brad Keller, who has had a mediocre season, is also one of these players.

Charlie Barnes, who was an unexpected addition to the Cubs bullpen earlier this season, was claimed off waivers by the Dodgers, and was recently called up. He got into two games before being sent back to AAA.

Drew Pomeranz has been removed from this list, as he is back with the Cubs organization, and might be called up soon.

Two big acquisitions for the Cubs at the 2025 deadline, Andrew Kittredge and Taylor Rogers have struggled. Would Jed Hoyer try to re-acquire them in 2026 to bolster the bullpen?