When Anthony Rizzo homered last week against the Marlins, he not only became the ninth Cubs player to reach 200 career home runs, but he pulled within 10 of Ernie Banks for the team’s all-time lead for first basemen.
Rizzo, who also homered once for the Padres before coming to the North Side in a trade for pitcher Andrew Cashner, has a 30.5 bWAR with the Cubs. He could contend for the title of best first baseman in Cubs history, provided you discount 19th-century baseball.
Cap Anson, whose career ended in 1897, had an 84.8 Cubs bWAR that looks out of sight. There are reasons to regard 19th-century baseball as a separate species. There was no clear path that led the best players to the top league, and rules changed almost yearly. Would everyone be OK with allowing batters to call for pitches to be high or low?
The Cubs’ long-term first basemen mostly have hit for high averages and modest power. Think Mark Grace (.308, 143 homers in 13 seasons with the Cubs), Bill Buckner (.300, 81, eight) and Phil Cavarretta (.292, 92, 20).
Rizzo has four of the 11 seasons of 30 or more homers by Cubs who have played at least half their games at first. Three are by Derrek Lee, two by Banks and one each by Jim Hickman and Fred McGriff.
Other than Anson, Frank Chance tops the bWAR list of Cubs first basemen. Here’s a top-five comparison:
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• Chance, 45.6 bWAR: The first baseman in the Cubs’ Tinker-to-Evers-to-Chance combination had a career .297 batting average with the Cubs. That was a major component of his 134 weighted runs created plus, meaning he was 34 percent more productive than the average hitter of his time.
• Grace, 44.2: With 1,004 RBI to rank eighth in team history, Grace had a 123 wRC+. His 456 doubles with the Cubs trail only Anson.
• Cavarretta, 34.0: Cavarretta was the National League MVP with a .355 batting average, six homers and 97 RBI when the Cubs won the 1945 pennant. He posted a 119 wRC+.
• Rizzo, 30.5: None of the above look out of reach for Rizzo, who has a 133 wRC+ and three seasons of 5 WAR or better. He tailed off to 2.7 last season, but at 1.4 as we head into mid-May, he’s on track to catch Cavarretta.
• Lee, 20.6: Because he played only seven seasons with the Cubs, Lee lags behind the career leaders. But his 7.7 bWAR in 2005, when he hit .335 with 46 homers, is the best by a first baseman in Cubs history and ranks 13th at any position.
Banks has five of the 12 bWARs that outrank Lee, but none came after he moved to first base. Fueled by 512 homers at all positions, Banks’ 67.5 bWAR includes 50.2 from 1953 to 1960, when he was primarily a shortstop and had not yet played first.
That leaves Banks’ rightful place as the Cubs’ all-time best shortstop. Nineteenth-century ball aside, first base is an open question Rizzo can answer.
