Ian Stewart

[Brandon Glick]

Ian Kenneth Stewart played parts of seven seasons in the MLB, with just one coming with the Chicago Cubs.

Stewart was a first-round selection out of high school by the Colorado Rockies in the 2003 MLB Draft, and he performed brilliantly in his first few professional seasons in the minor leagues. Prior the 2005 season, he was rated as Baseball America's fourth-best prospect, and he would continue appearing on Top-100 lists prior to his MLB debut in 2007.

Stewart's debut came on August 11, 2007, following an injury to infielder Jeff Baker. His first major league hit came the following day, against Kerry Wood and the Cubs. From that point on, Stewart's career in Colorado was a rollercoaster, as he interspersed strong seasons (like his 2.1 WAR campaign in 2010) with weak efforts (like when he was demoted to Triple-A for the majority of the 2011 season). He fell out of favor with the Rockies as he got further into arbitration, and eventually he found himself on the trading block.

Following the 2011 season, Stewart (along with pitcher Casey Weathers, who never made it to the big leagues) was traded to the Chicago Cubs in exchange for outfielder Tyler Colvin and future batting champion DJ LeMahieu It was the very first trade executed by Theo Epstein with the Cubs following his takeover of the team's front office that year. Stewart spent a rather uneventful season with the Cubs in 2012 as their primary third baseman, slashing just .201/.292/.335 in 55 games. His year was cut short due to an injury that required wrist surgery in July of that year.

Of course, Stewart's most memorable moment with the Cubs came after that point. The team re-signed him to a one-year, $2 million deal prior to the 2013 season, though he failed to make the 25-man roster out of camp. He batted just .168 in 40 games with the Iowa Cubs, and then proceeded to go on an infamous Twitter rant about the organization. Stewart was answering questions from fans online at the time and was asked whether he would return to the Cubs soon. He responded "probably never" before following up with: "I said that because the Cubs are done with me....there (sic) going to let me Rott (sic) in AAA all season and then non tender me after." There were other notable comments made by both Stewart and the organization, but the one that sticks with me is this incredible response by Theo Epstein:

Quote

"He had the right to elect free agency and he chose not to. Currently, we have the second-best production out of third base in the league. We are getting really good defense at third base, too. If that were to change and Ian would excel at the Triple-A level, we would consider calling him back up here. In the meantime, we are very happy with our production at third and Ian is working on trying to figure out Triple-A pitching."

The team proceeded to suspend him for ten games, and ultimately wound up releasing him on June 25, 2013, after his agent, Larry Sanders, asked the club to release Stewart if he wasn't in their plans. With the suspension, Stewart became the first player since Milton Bradley in 2009 to be suspended by the organization.

After his release from the Cubs, signed minor league deals with the Dodgers and Angels, eventually earning a bench job for the latter, though he appeared in just 24 games before being DFA'ed by the Angels in July of 2014. Stewart retired from professional baseball after being released by the Washington Nationals in June of 2015 after failing to make their big league roster in the first half of that season.

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