The Most Underrated Chicago Cubs Player Finally Got Proper Respect
Back in January, MLB Network released it’s lis to of the top-100 players heading into the 2026 season and Justin Steele didn’t hold back, blasting the rankings for omitting the most underrated player on the Chicago Cubs. Nico Hoerner was nowhere to be found on the list, but the second baseman did finally receive his proper respect in ESPN’s top-100 players list that was revealed this week.
Hoerner doesn’t put up huge power numbers, which actually speaks to how great of a baseball player he is all around because he remained near the top of the league in overall value at his position in 2025. He’s been remarkably stable on defense and offense, so it was great to see the folks over at ESPN not only rank Hoerner in the top-100, he was No. 55, the second-highest rated player on the Cubs.
In MLB Network’s list, second basemen Brice Turang and Jose Altuve both made it in the top-100 at 62nd and 81st, respectively. In ESPN’s list, Turang is ranked No. 74, while Altuve was left off. The other two second basemen on MLB Network’s list were Jazz Chisholm Jr. at No. 61, and Kete Marte at No. 19.
This time around, Hoerner was ranked behind one other second baseman as ESPN ranked Marte 20th, while Chisholm came in at No. 78.
Since moving over to second base permanently in 2023, Hoerner ranks second among all MLB second basemen with a 13.2 fWAR, trailing only Marte. Dating back to 2022, Hoerner ranks 18th in fWAR out of all qualified players in MLB. That’s a list of 306 players. Again, that MLB Network top-100 list was a joke. Hoerner finished last year as the 20th most valuable player according to FanGraphs and tied with Juan Soto on Baseball Reference as the seventh most valuable player in MLB.
So, this was a well-deserved ranking for Hoerner.
Chicago Cubs on ESPN’s Top-100 List
CF – Pete Crow-Armstrong: No. 22
2B – Nico Hoerner: No. 55
3B – Alex Bregman: No. 61
SS – Dansby Swanson: No. 82
1B – Michael Busch: No. 86
RF – Seiya Suzuki: No. 92
Pretty damn impressive to have the entire infield ranked in the top-100 according to ESPN.
However, one thing did stand out. No Cubs pitchers made it on the list and really maybe only Cade Horton had the best case to make it based on his incredible second half in 2025. But it does bring up some concerns in the starting rotation as right now there isn’t a true ace established just yet for the Cubs.
Overall, there were only two other teams with more players ranked in this list than the Cubs as the Los Angeles Dodgers had eight and the Philadelphia Phillies had seven. The Atlanta Braves, Seattle Mariners and Boston Red Sox were tied with the Cubs at six players.
So, at least on paper, the Cubs are considered one of the best teams heading into the 2026 season.