Cubs should trade these players to help build another World Series winner

2. Ian Happ

Coming up as a top prospect in the minor league system, Ian Happ always seemed like a likely player to be traded. Happ is a natural second baseman who has also shown the ability to handle all three outfield positions. He could certainly fit into many spots, but the Cubs’ extreme depth has always seemed to leave him as the odd man out, even after an impressive rookie season.

Happ had a sooner than expected start to his big league career, coming up to the North Side early in the 2017 season. Due to injuries, Happ was immediately brought into a large major league role and he was pretty impressive.

In 413 big-league plate appearances, Happ hit .253/.328/.514 in 2017. His 31.2% strikeout rate (FanGraphs) is not ideal, but Happ did hit 24 home runs and walked at a solid 9.4% rate. He is undoubtedly a talented young slugger with a lot of long-term value.

Despite his impressive rookie season, Happ was essentially non-existent in the playoffs. The Cubs’ rookie only started one game throughout the entire postseason and had only eight plate appearances. Instead of Happ, Maddon opted to go with guys like Baez, Russell, Zobrist, Kyle Schwarber, Jon Jay and Albert Almora.

Maddon just simply has too many options to consistently get everybody involved. If the proper trade for a starting pitcher comes along and it includes Happ, I could easily see Epstein and company pulling the trigger.