Ian Happ’s hard work during a lengthy minor league assignment in 2019 led to a successful end-of-season stint with the big league club. In fact, no other Cubs hitter had more barrels per plate appearance than the 9.0% Happ managed last season.
Happ’s barrel rate was better than 95% of MLB last season and best among switch hitters (minimum 50 plate appearances). For the sake of reference, Kyle Schwarber was right there with Happ and NL MVP Cody Bellinger sat just behind with a mark of 8.9% barrels per plate appearance. Only 10 players in baseball (min. 100 batted-ball events) achieved 10% or higher.