5 Greatest Chicago Cubs Shortstops of All Time

A fan favorite on the North Side, "El Mago" was a key part of the 2016 Cubs squad that broke the 108-year World Series drought in Wrigleyville. Baez's leadoff home run off Corey Kluber in the fifth inning of Game 7 of that Fall Classic knocked the ace out of the game, but his contributions to the Cubs franchise hardly stopped there.

Baez was a flashy player with a tremendous glove and exciting bat at the plate, quickly leading to his status as a cult sort of player. He started two All-Star games for the Cubs, though one of those starts came at second base.

His best offensive season came in 2018, when he smacked 34 home runs and drove in 111 runs, while he picked up a Gold Glove in 2020.

The eight-year Cub slashed .262/.303/.474 over his career, smashing 140 home runs and driving in 443 runs while scoring 419 of his own. Oh, and the trade that sent him to Queens in the summer of 2021 netted the Cubs current star Pete Crow-Armstrong, so that's not horrible for Cubs fans, either.

3. Don Kessinger (1964-75)

Kessinger was in the middle of a beloved Cubs infield in the late 60s that included Ron Santo at third, Glenn Beckert at second, and Ernie Banks at first.

Kessinger clearly worked well with that quartet, making six All-Star games and winning consecutive Gold Gloves from 1969 to 1970. To this day, the Arkansas native ranks first in games (1,602), hits (1,599), and runs (756) among Cubs shortstops.

2. Joe Tinker (1902-12, '16)

A theme for this series is players at the shortstop position who exist in a long-gone era of baseball but exemplify the ageless wonder of the game we love. Tinker is one of them; a recent MLB.com article recalls his fame from a 1910 poem by F.P. Adams, a columnist, illustrating the 6-4-3 double play combination of Tinker to Evers to Chance.

Frank Chance was the first baseman receiving the throw from Johnny Evers, but it was Joe Tinker who got these double plays started. That trio in the Cubs infield was the catalyst for some of the dominant Cubs teams in the 1900s that averaged 106 wins from 1906 to 1910 and won two World Series in that span.

Tinker, a 1946 Hall of Fame inductee, tallied 220 doubles, 304 stolen bases and 670 runs scored in over 1,500 games over a long career, also becoming the Cubs' manager in 1916. His legacy as the infield captain drove much of the Cubs' early success as a franchise.

1. Ernie Banks (1953-71)

There could surely not be another player on this list than Banks, known more popularly as "Mr. Cub," a nickname included on his Hall of Fame plaque.

Banks was an early star in the Negro Leagues and debuted as the franchise's first African-American player, six years after Jackie Robinson first debuted for the Dodgers.

In a long, illustrious career, Banks became the first National League player to win back-to-back MVPs in 1958-1959, made 14 All Star teams and took home a Gold Glove. He remains the top Cub in games (2,528), total bases (4,706), and extra base-hits (1,009), and his 512 home runs would have reigned supreme if not for Sammy Sosa's career mark of 545.

Banks passed in 2015, at the age of 83, before the Cubs toppled the curse the following fall. That said, it makes you wonder if his spirit of joy and appreciation for the game infused itself into the Cubs' clubhouse in 2016 as they reached heights that no Cubs team had achieved in over a century.