There was a time when Ian Happ was a “can’t miss” prospect after being taken ninth overall in the 2015 MLB Amateur Draft. The Chicago Cubs outfielder made his debut in 2017, hitting 24 long balls and driving in 68 runs while batting a respectable .253.
However, after a full 2018 season saw his strikeout numbers skyrocket, Happ began the following year in the minors. And he remained there until the end of July, when he was recalled from Triple-A Iowa. Happ finished out the season in Chicago, hitting .263 despite striking out at a 25.0 percent clip.
The last couple of seasons have seen more of the same from the Pittsburgh, PA native. Plenty of potential weighed down by a high strikeout rate, including a 29.2 percent K rate in 2021.
Nearly at the end of the first month of the 2022 season, though, Happ is taking walks at a 15.4 percent clip, and his strikeouts are way down – 16.9 percent, to be exact.
Ian Happ is off to his best start in years with the Chicago Cubs. His strikeouts are down and walks are up. Is this sustainable or a flash in the pan?
Really, Happ’s strong start began after the trade deadline last season when the team shipped out several mainstays, opening up more playing time for others.
“Obviously, getting consistent everyday at-bats was big for me at the end of last year and carrying that into this year,” said Happ, who hit .317 in the final month of the 2021 campaign.
“But just approach-wise, mentality, being able to go in there with a little bit of a rhythm and kind of free things up right-handed was huge, something I hadn’t really done for the last few years, probably since ’17, right-handed. So being able to kind of free that swing up and be able to get it off early in counts [has been big].”
Through the first 18 games of this season, Happ is well above average in several analytical measures.
Credit: Baseball Savant
Happ’s .340 batting average and .956 OPS rank 10th and 13th among Major League hitters. He’s seeing roughly the same number of pitches per plate appearance this year compared to last season (4.21 to 4.19), but he’s making contact more often.
