After a skid in recent years, the Cubs went 2-for-2 on extension talks to start the year.
Left fielder Ian Happ and the Cubs came to an agreement on a three-year contract extension, the team announced Wednesday. The deal is worth $61 million, according to multiple reports.
With Happ playing catch in left field before the Cubs’ game against the Mariners on Wednesday, a graphic on the Wrigley Field video boards congratulated Happ on the extension.
Happ has followed up his 2022 All-Star season with a hot start, going 11-for-35 with five extra-base hits and six RBI in the first 10 games of the season.
As spring training came to a close, the momentum in extension talks between the two parties appeared to slow. But Happ told the Sun-Times: “I don’t think there’s any benefit of putting deadlines out there, so it’s a fluid conversation.”
Without an extension, Happ would have hit free agency this winter, as one of the top position players in the class. There was a sense, however, that he was willing to take a hometown discount to stay with the organization that drafted him in 2015.
Happ had a breakout season last year, taking steps forward in all facets of the game. He earned regular playing time, and with consistent at-bats from both sides of the plate, he hit for average (.305) as a right-handed batter and recorded 49 extra-base hits with his left-handed swing. He earned his first All-Star selection.
Playing left field regularly — rather than splitting time between left and center as he had the year before, or also playing in the infield as he had earlier in his career — Happ won a Gold Glove.
The Cubs also extended homegrown middle infielder Nico Hoerner before this season, on a $35 million deal that also extends through the 2026 season.
Before Hoerner, the last player to reach an extension with the Cubs was David Bote in 2019.
