This article was prompted by a reader comment.
In the comments regarding Max Scherzer in BCB After Dark, discussion turned to players who had good or great careers and who eventually wound up with the Cubs late in their careers.
I said that “never, ever” worked and of course, that’s my usual hyperbole. As one reader pointed out, both Jim Edmonds and Gary Gaetti made key contributions to the Cubs, both in playoff years, but both had only a brief time on the North Side (85 games for Edmonds, 37 games with a .991 OPS for Gaetti). The Cubs kept Gaetti in 1999 and he flopped (.204/.260/.339 in 113 games) and let Edmonds go, and it can be argued they should have kept Edmonds instead of signing Milton Bradley for 2009.
Anyway: The suggestion was made that I write an article about guys like this, good or great players who had brief cameos with the Cubs. Players who Cubs management, for one reason or another, thought might recapture some of their previous glory. Let’s not say it “never, ever” worked — instead, I’ll just say it rarely worked. Not all these players actually wrapped their careers with the Cubs, but they had brief appearances after long careers with other teams.
Here are some of those players. Let’s start with Hall of Famers.
Richie Ashburn
Ashburn hit .311/.394/.388 in 12 years with the Phillies, leading the league in steals in 1948 and in hits three times. Three times he had a league-leading OBP over .440. (No qualified Cubs batter has had an OBP that high since Phil Cavaretta’s .449 in 1945.)
So in January 1960, the Cubs traded John Buzhardt, Al Dark and Jim Woods to the Phillies for Ashburn. Dark was 38 and nearly done; Woods played in only 34 games in Philadelphia. Only Buzhardt went on to have a solid career, mostly for the White Sox.
Ashburn had a very good year for the Cubs in 1960, batting .291/.415/.338 with 99 runs scored and 116 walks. It was a 4.4 bWAR season, not that it really helped the Cubs, who lost 94 games. Only three qualified Cubs hitters have had an OBP of .415 or better since 1960: Jim Hickman, .419 in 1970; Sammy Sosa, .437 in 2001; and Derrek Lee, .418 in 2005. And only one Cub has walked that many times since Ashburn: Sosa, also 116 in 2001.
So that one worked, though Ashburn wasn’t “old” at the time — just 33. The best thing the Cubs could have done was to trade him after that year, but they kept him and he wasn’t nearly as good in 1961, playing in only 109 games due to injuries and batting .257/.373/.306. The Cubs left him unprotected in the expansion draft and the Mets chose him.
Goose Gossage
Gossage was 36 when the Cubs acquired him from the Padres in February 1988 along with Ray Hayward to the Chicago Cubs for Mike Brumley and Keith Moreland.
His best years were almost a decade behind him, though he’d had good years for San Diego in 1984 and 1985.
Let’s be charitable… okay, let’s not. Gossage was awful for the Cubs. He had 13 saves and NINE blown saves and most of the time seemed like he didn’t want to be a Cub. (No specifics here, just the way it felt.)
He was under contract for 1989 but the Cubs simply released him at the end of Spring Training. He signed with the Giants and threw reasonably well for them before they traded him back to the Yankees, where he’d had great success in the 1970s. After a year in Japan he came back and threw four more years for the Rangers, A’s and Mariners.
That -0.2 bWAR season for the Cubs in 1988 was eminently forgettable.
Tony Lazzeri
The Yankees shortstop had downballot MVP votes in seven different seasons and played in six World Series for them.
When the Cubs acquired him in 1938 he was 34 and played in just 54 games, batting .267/.380/.433 and went 0-for-2 in the World Series and was released at the end of the season.
Robin Roberts
Roberts was a dominant force in the NL for the Phillies for 14 seasons. He got downballot MVP votes multiple times and likely would have won multiple Cy Young Awards if that had existed in the 1950s — he had four years (1951-54) of 8.0 or more bWAR.
By the time the Cubs got him in 1966 at age 39, he was done. He pitched in 11 games (nine starts) for the Cubs and posted a 6.14 ERA. He did throw one very good game for the Cubs, in fact, his first as a Cub, a complete-game victory over the Pirates July 15, 1966, and then he allowed two runs in 11 innings in his next outing, a loss to the Reds. After that his Cubs ERA was 8.89.
Hoyt Wilhelm
Wilhelm was 47 and had already played 18 MLB seasons when the Cubs acquired him on waivers with 10 days left in the 1970 season. He pitched in three games for the Cubs and allowed four runs in 3⅔ innings. Since the Cubs finished the 1970 season with a 14 (!) game road trip, he never pitched in Wrigley Field as a Cub.
After the 1970 season the Cubs traded Wilhelm to the Braves for Hal Breeden, who went 5-for-36 in 23 games for the Cubs. They probably should have kept Wilhelm, who had a decent year in limited duty for the Dodgers in 1971.
Here’s a selection of non-Hall of Famers who were significant players who the Cubs got late in their careers, hoping to reclaim some of that past performance — and it didn’t really work.
Bobby Bonds
Bonds had legitimately great years for the Giants in the early 1970s, but then was an itinerant, playing for six teams between 1975 and 1980.
The Cubs picked him up from the Rangers for cash June 4, 1981. The Cubs were off to the worst start in their history, and I will never forget how excited Jack Brickhouse was on the WGN-TV broadcast that day, when Bonds made his Cubs debut. “He’s going to save our season!” Brickhouse exulted.
Bonds dived for a low line drive in the bottom of the first inning of the game against the Pirates at Three Rivers Stadium and broke his wrist. Of course, the strike cancelled two months of the season a few days later, but Bonds probably wouldn’t have played again until August anyway.
He batted .215/.323/.380 with six home runs in 45 games for the Cubs, then they released him and he was done.
Lew Burdette
Here’s another World Series performer the Cubs got way too late. Burdette had great years for the Milwaukee Braves from 1953-60, pitched in two World Series for them, but then began to decline and in 35 games (20 starts) for the Cubs in 1964 and 1965 he posted a 4.94 ERA. He did wind up having a decent year for the Angels in 1966 (3.39 ERA, five saves, 0.9 bWAR) at age 39.
Dave Giusti
Giusti had regularly tormented the Cubs as a Pirates reliever. He was 23-9 against the Cubs in 73 games (23 starts) with a 2.97 ERA and 15 saves during the Pirates’ heyday of the early 1970s.
The A’s had acquired him from Pittsburgh before the 1977 season, when Giusti was 37. He pitched well in Oakland — 2.98 ERA, six saves… but there were warning signs, he had a 5.40 ERA and allowed four home runs in 20 innings over his last nine games for the A’s.
The Cubs picked Giusti up anyway for cash considerations on Aug. 5, just as their hold on first place was beginning to slip. and he pitched okay… for a while. Then his September was horrific — seven games, 14.63 ERA, 3.375 WHIP. He was released at the end of the season.
Howard Johnson
Johnson had won two Silver Slugger awards with the Mets and hit 36 or more home runs three times for them, including a league-leading 38 in 1991.
Four years later he was a Cub, batting .195/.330/.355 with seven home runs in 87 games at age 34 in 1995. Never a great third baseman, he was pretty terrible as a Cub. It was the last year of his career.
Harvey Kuenn
Kuenn had led the AL in hits multiple times and won a batting title with the Tigers in the 1950s. When the Cubs got him in mid-1965 he was 34 and nearly done, batting .217/.336/.258, and, famously, was the last out in Sandy Koufax’ perfect game. The Cubs let him go in early 1966.
He went on to become the manager of the Brewers in the 1980s and led them to the World Series in 1982.
Bobby Shantz
Shantz had been around so long when the Cubs got him in 1964 that he had won the AL MVP as a member of the Philadelphia Athletics (1952). He also had some good years for the Yankees and pitched in three World Series for them. He was acquired as part of the Lou Brock trade, posted a 5.56 ERA in 20 appearances, then was sent to the Phillies for cash considerations. He threw fairly well for the Phillies (2.25 ERA in 14 games), but too bad for him — if the Cardinals had just kept him he might have pitched in another World Series.
But for the Cubs at age 38? He was just bad.
Curt Simmons
Simmons was an early prototype of a power pitcher for the Phillies in the 1950s and had three All-Star seasons for them. Then he had arm trouble and re-invented himself as a prototype of the lefthanded sinkerball pitcher for the Cardinals, who he helped lead to the 1964 World Series.
Two years later he was a Cub at age 37. Did that work? Nope. Simmons posted a 4.64 ERA and -1.1 bWAR in 35 games (20 starts) for the Cubs in 1966 and 1967. The Cubs sent him to the Angels for cash in mid-1967 and he threw fairly well for them (2.60 ERA in 14 games), so that might speak a bit to the Cubs coaching infrastructure of the time.
Jim Sundberg
Sundberg won multiple Gold Gloves catching for the Rangers from 1974-83. By the time the Cubs acquired him from the Royals in March 1987, for Thad Bosley and Dave Gumpert, he was 36 and mostly done.
He played for the Cubs in 1986 and part of 1987, batting .212/.314/.321 in 85 games. When the Cubs released him in July 1987, it took the Rangers only a few days to re-sign him, and he posted 1.1 bWAR in 114 games for them before he retired after 1988 and joined the Rangers broadcast team, then their front office, where he served in various roles through 2014.
Having given those examples, and there are others, here’s one that did work.
Davey Lopes
Lopes was acquired from the A’s on Aug. 31, 1984, just in time for him to be eligible for the postseason.
And then Jim Frey didn’t use him much. Lopes played in just 16 games for the ‘84 Cubs, going 4-for-17, mostly as a pinch-hitter. He played in just two games in the NLCS, one as a defensive replacement, the other as a pinch-hitter. Who knows? Maybe he could have done more for the Cubs in that NLCS, because he had an outstanding season for the Cubs in 1985 at age 40. In 99 games Lopes batted .284/.383/.444 with 52 runs scored and 47 stolen bases. Forty years later that remains the record for SB in a season for a player age 40 or older (nope, go look it up, even Rickey Henderson never did that after 40).
Lopes was batting well for the Cubs in 1986, too (.299/.419/.490, 17 steals in 59 games) when he was traded to the Astros for Frank DiPino.
So I’ll grant that the Cubs’ acquisitions of Edmonds, Gaetti and Lopes worked as getting older players who still contributed to Cubs teams even at advanced ages.
In general, though… these sorts of things don’t work. If you can think of other players to add to these lists, either guys who contributed but didn’t, let us know in the comments.