Ian Happ was not happy when the Cubs broke camp for the regular season without him. He had mashed from the time he got the call up in May of 2017 and he’d spent time at the heart of both the order and the team’s dugout hijinks ever since, so to find out he was being optioned to Triple-A Iowa didn’t sit well.
The Cubs knew that would be the case and perhaps even chose Happ as the sacrificial lamb of the “production over talent” edict because they knew he’d channel his anger in a productive manner.