Ian Happ’s Strong Finish Has Him Primed for Big 2020 Campaign

Ian Happ’s 2019 did not get off to the start he’d envisioned. Despite spending most of the two previous seasons in Chicago, an abysmal spring performance and the need to rework his swing led to the Cubs demoting him to Triple-A Iowa just three days before the regular season began. He would spend four months cooling off in the Pacific Coast League before a second-half return to Chicago.

The ninth overall pick in the 2015 draft debuted in 2017 with a huge splash, launching 24 homers and posting an .842 OPS with a 114 wRC+ in just 413 plate appearances. After coming up for fill-in duty as something of a reward for his early performance at Iowa that season, Happ forced his way into a regular…