Ian Happ's Spring Breakout Means Cubs' Next Top Rookie Could Arrive in 2017

When spring training began, one of the big burning questions was how creative Joe Maddon would need to be to fit Kyle Schwarber’s bat into his Chicago Cubs lineup. Now, as spring training ends with Schwarber as the starting left fielder, it might be time to ask how Maddon is going to fit Ian Happ in there as well.

The Happ question isn’t as red-hot burning because there’s nothing wrong with the Cubs sending the 22-year-old Happ back to the minor leagues to start the season. Happ forced the issue somewhat with a brilliant spring training, but what he really did was serve notice that he has a chance to force it even more this summer.

“He hits even better than I’ve read,” said one American League scout who followed the Cubs this spring. “He really has an idea of what he wants to do when he steps in the box.”

The numbers back that up, last year at Single-A and Double-A (30 doubles, 15 home runs and an .810 OPS in 134 games) and this spring with the Cubs (.417 with four doubles and five home runs among his 20 hits).

“Right now he looks great,” Maddon told reporters, including Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune. “He’s going to have to go out [to the minors] and play. That’s it. I think he’s really good. He’s a major league player.”

Technically he’s not, not yet. But Maddon’s point is Happ has major league ability and that he’s set up for major league success sooner rather than later.

How do the Cubs keep coming up with guys like this? Oh, and how does Maddon fit him into a packed lineup?

First question first (in part because it’s a lot easier to answer): The Cubs came up with Happ because they lost 89 games as recently as 2014, which enabled them to draft ninth overall in June 2015, which enabled them to grab Happ out of the University of Cincinnati.

The Cubs were fortunate that the top of the first round was stacked with talent that year (Dansby Swanson, Alex Bregman and Andrew Benintendi were among the players taken ahead of Happ), and they were smart enough to recognize a big college bat when they saw one (just as they had a year earlier with Schwarber and two years before with Kris Bryant).

Happ was an All-American outfielder in 2015. He was a Freshman All-American second baseman two years earlier. He was an outfielder in his first minor league season with the Cubs but mostly a second baseman last year.

He’s been almost exclusively a second baseman this spring, with a few innings in left field and one game in center field.

“You still don't know what you're going to get defensively,” the scout said. “But I really think he's going to hit."

The Cubs play in the National League, so if Happ is going to hit, he’s going to have to play somewhere in the field. That’s already been an issue with Schwarber, who isn’t a good enough catcher to play regularly behind the plate and hasn’t always looked smooth in the outfield.

It’s also an issue because the Cubs have two second basemen. They have Ben Zobrist, an All-Star last year when he played more games at second than anywhere else and who appears set to begin the season as the regular. They have Javier Baez, so good Maddon played him at second base through every game of the Cubs’ historic postseason run.

Baez is 24, so he could be the second baseman at Wrigley Field for years to come.

But where does that leave Happ?

"Wherever the team needs me, that’s where I want to go," Happ told the Chicago Tribune’s Paul Sullivan. "Especially with the way Joe manages—guys are all over the place. That’s what I pride myself on."

Joshua Blanchard/Getty Images

He’s right. Maddon loves playing guys all over the place. He values versatility as much as any manager in the major leagues. If there’s any manager who can find a way to make use of Zobrist, Baez, Schwarber and Happ, Maddon is the guy.

Maddon suggested to Sullivan that Happ could also play third base and first base, not that those spots are available on an everyday basis in the Cubs lineup, either.

“If the bat is ready and you have a spot, let’s be able to put that guy in this spot, if he can,” Maddon said. “If he’s an athlete.”

Especially if he can hit, and all signs are that Happ can hit. He can also run (26 stolen bases in 201 minor league games), but it’s the bat that is pushing him into the Cubs’ major league picture.

He’ll get there, and it could be soon. He’ll get there, even though it’s hard to say just yet what will have to happen to bring him there.

Things happen during a season. Players get hurt. Players underperform. Teams adjust plans.

What Ian Happ has done this spring serves notice that the Cubs’ adjusted 2017 plans will need to include him.

Danny Knobler covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.

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