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The Situation: The World’s Champion Chicago Cubs have been besieged by injuries to key hitters, including Kris Bryant, Ben Zobrist, Jason Heyward and Addison Russell. The injuries have mostly been minor, but they ran out of functional position players on the 40-man roster to call-up over the weekend. Instead of calling up an organizational player to cover the emergency, the Cubs decided to use the opportunity to break in their top hitting prospect, Ian Happ.

Background: The Cubs drafted Happ ninth overall from the University of Cincinnati in 2015, the last of the series of top-10 picks they accumulated during the Epstein/Hoyer rebuilding period. Happ played all over the diamond in college, and given that he’s a polished switch-hitter, Zobrist comps started long before they ended up with the same employer. The Cubs kept Happ exclusively in the outfield for his pro debut in 2015, but shifted him to primarily play at second base in 2016. Happ breezed through the minors, playing well but not dominating any level until he reached Triple A after camp this year. He ranked as the 67th-best prospect in baseball before 2016 and the 54th-best prospect before this season.

Scouting: You’ll hear the word polished over and over and over again with Ian Happ. It’s both a positive and an implied negative. Happ has a total set of offensive tools that project all as above-average but not standout, and he combines them with a very advanced plate approach and great reports about makeup and those sorts of intangibles. He does lack an obvious star-making tool, and while he has above-average hit and power potential, his swing from both sides is just long enough that one could hedge a little against guaranteeing that kind of outcome. Happ has had a power breakout early this season in Triple A, though your usual small sample and PCL caveats apply. He’s probably no more than a fringe-average defender at second base or center field, but he can play them without embarrassing himself, and the Cubs are probably the best team in baseball at creating value out of these fringe extra positions.

You’ll also hear the name “Ben Zobrist” with Happ. It’s not a bad comp if you’re talking about Cubs-era Zobrist, who is still a fine hitter who can handle second and the corner outfield spots as needed. It’s a moon-shot comp if you’re talking about the jack-of-all-trades superstar Ben Zobrist who could give you average-or-better defense literally anywhere on the diamond except pitcher or catcher in his prime. Zobrist played over 1,700 innings at shortstop in his career, for example, and played the position well enough that he probably could’ve been a regular there; Happ might not even handle second well enough for regular duty. Happ’s still a heck of a prospect, but if you’re looking for the next Ben Zobrist…well, the Cubs have Javier Baez already, actually.

Overall, Happ projects as an above-average offensively-minded regular with versatility that would be unusual in any other system. Given that versatility, he also might be the best match of top prospect skills to the system that he’s in.

Immediate Future: Happ already hit an impressive home run in his debut, but he’s probably headed back to the farm within a week or two. Now that he’s on the 40-man, he’s going to be right there with Jeimer Candelario in contention for regular playing time if a regular goes down, and given the flexibility on the Cubs roster, a spot for Happ could be created with an opening at nearly any infield or outfield position. Over the medium-term, I’d expect Happ to settle into a role somewhat similar to current Zobrist, perhaps as soon as later this year, getting close to regular playing time shifting around between second and all of the outfield spots. Joe Maddon sure does love roster versatility, after all. —Jarrett Seidler

Fantasy Take: You guys, it's finally, um, going down. Thanks to a few injuries, the Cubs gave Happ the call Saturday, once again drawing from an immense wave of young talent. It's not very fair. While he has traditionally manned the keystone, Happ slotted into right field for debut, and made his presence felt immediately, smacking a homer and a double while collecting three hits in his first eight plate appearances. He's probably not going to hit .429/.500/1.000 for the duration of his career (going out on a limb here), but he crushed at Triple A before the call-up to the tune of a .369 TAv with nine dingers in this season's infancy. So he's good. Happ has always had the hit tool (from both sides of the plate), so there's little reason to believe that those skills won't shine with the big club.

The duration of this stint with the big club, however, could really put a cap on Happ's fantasy value. In case you haven't heard, the Cubs are loaded with young talent all over the diamond. Javier Baez seems to have second base on lock (with Ben Zobrist more than capable of filling in). Schwarber and Heyward are mainstays at the corner outfield spots. At third base, well, you know. The Cubs presumably want Happ to play every day, so once the injury clutter dissipates a bit, it's likely that Happ is back on the bus to Iowa. Having said that, Cubs rookies have hit their way into the lineup before, so if Happ continues to rake, it's possible he gets the call again later in the season. As of now, the hit tool alone keeps him a top 50-ish dynasty asset, but in a redraft league his value will directly be tied to injuries to the regulars in front of him. Mark Barry

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TonyRiha
5/16
What about a comparison to Peter Edward Rose? It's unfair, of course, considering how Rose's career developed. Then again, would scouts have given 1963/1964 Pete Rose the same type of profile as given Happ in this article? That's at the plate, in the field and the intangibles.
TonyRiha
5/16
And I mean this in an objective way, how is the overall Happ package in comparison to Schwarber? It's not like the latter has outperformed in any area.