While the Cubs search for Consistency, Ian Happ provides Stability

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The Cubs continue to struggle after a hot start but left fielder Ian Happ continues to do everything he can to keep them in contention.

Image courtesy of © Matt Marton-USA TODAY Sports

Despite our reasonable frustrations with the erratic nature of the Cubs’ 2024 campaign, the club seems adamant, if not determined, to remain a threat for postseason contention. When the Cubs are good, they’re great, using a lethal combination of slugging and shutdown pitching to put opponents away early and take the pressure off of Craig Counsell’s much-maligned bullpen. That’s how they win games like Jameson Taillon’s latest start against the Mets in Wrigleyville, in which he went seven innings, struck out ten batters, and got ample run support early in the bottom of the first inning, in which the Cubs scored five times and sent all nine batters to the plate. 

The win seemed like a springboard to the type of play we expect as the Cubs and the organization prepared Gallagher Way for the legendary second baseman Ryne Sandberg’s statue dedication ceremony. But, much like numerous other letdowns with this team so far, or at least in the past couple of months, the Cubs dropped the series to the Metropolitans.

To be succinct, this is unacceptable. I get that on paper, the Mets are a team at least parallel to the Cubs in record and trade deadline complexities, but this series belonged to the Cubs, and they gave it away. The team didn’t lose because of some mystical power possessed by McDonald’s third-best mascot; they lost because of a consistent lack of consistency. As each game marked off the calendar begins to feel like a turning point, I offer one stabilizer, a player who is both a clubhouse veteran and one of Chicagoland’s leading coffee enthusiasts: Ian Happ.

Now, conceding that in nearly two months of futility, tempers boil over with tremendous ease, the North Side’s left-fielder absorbed what was, by my estimation, a disproportionate share of the blame. But he’s stepped it up. Boy, has he ever. 

In June, according to ESPN, Happ sports an .838 OPS, saddled up next to a .438 slugging percentage. His place in the lineup has not afforded him the opportunity to deliver many early-inning runs, which could skew how his value is perceived, but the numbers suggest he is trending upward. Per ESPN stats, in his 66 at-bats this month, Happ has collected seventeen hits, including five doubles, three home runs, and 15 runs batted in. In the past week and a half or so, Happ thumped his way to an OPS over 1.000 when his squad needs it most. Google Statcast nor the league has added a metric that measures the fan base's hopes and dreams, but Happ is exhausting his efforts to keep them alive. What makes his contributions more resonant is his experience on a team that’s seen seismic shifts in recent years; Happ knows the community, knows the club, and provides stability to a starting nine that visibly plays tight and feels the pressure more every day. In the middle of the order, players like Cody Bellinger and Seiya Suzuki, guys you expect a lot of slug from, continue to come up short in critical situations because they’re waiting on a perfect pitch that is never going to come. Sometimes, the perfect pitch is the one the player makes perfect.

Before I garner a reputation for preaching false hope or optimism in my pieces, let me illuminate the fact that the whole league, the entirety of Major League Baseball, is putting less wood on the ball this season. It’s not a Cub thing; it’s a big-league ball club thing. 

The Cubs, top to bottom as an organization, understand why success at 1060 West Addison is better than success anywhere else. There isn’t much else more invigorating than stepping off the Red Line, coming in on either the Howard side or 95th side, and diving into a sea of red and blue, Cubs fans delighting in a Chicago tradition nearly as old as the game itself. Emerging as a man who personifies this understanding, Ian Happ could just be the guy to drive this team closer to that success.  

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