The hope is that although Ian Happ is in the minors, he can get back on track at the plate and return to the major leagues.

He needs to become the player the Chicago Cubs have always hoped he could be. For good.

“He’s going to be a big-league player in Chicago for a long time,” said Randy Bush, the Cubs' assistant GM. “The reason that we did this was to help him get back to his best version of Ian Happ — the version that’s going to play in the big leagues for a long time. So, it’s important to us to get him into that version. That’s why he needed to play every day and get back to his feel and what he knows he can do at the plate on a consistent basis.”

The Cubs have already seen signs from the 2015 first-round pick. Happ, who made his big-league debut in 2017, belted 24 homers and compiled a slash line of .253/.328/.514 in 115 big-league games. But Happ also tallied 129 strikeouts. The strikeouts have continued to plague Happ, who tallied 167 in 462 plate appearances in 2018. When the strikeouts started piling up on Happ again during spring training, the Cubs sent him back to Triple-A to start the season.

The goal of the demotion was to get Happ to cut down on the whiffs. Happ entered Monday having reached base in his last 10 games, during which he hit .286 (10-for-35) and drew 12 walks. More importantly, he’d struck out just six times. He’s also reached base in 21 of his past 22 games, drawing 22 walks and only logging 12 strikeouts during that span.

“(He’s had) good plate discipline,” Bush said. “He’s staying in the zone. It looks like they usually don’t want to attack him very often in the zone, and he’s doing what you have to do and not trying to force it and taking his walks. That’s really good to see, because that’s a big part of his game. He has a really good eye. He has discipline, and he swings at pitches in the zone. That’s going to be the Ian Happ that we want back in Chicago, because he can do a lot of damage with those pitches.”

PREVIOUSLY:

That’s not the only part of Happ’s game that has impressed Bush while he’s been in town.

“His attitude’s been great,” Bush said. “I know his work ethic’s been great. That’s what everyone tells me. And he’s playing hard.”

Happ has to continue doing that before he can get another shot in the big leagues. Even though Happ’s cut down on his strikeouts, he’s still far from dominating at the Triple-A level like the Cubs typically expect of their young players before they bring them back to the big leagues. Through his firsts 26 games with Iowa, Happ was hitting just .240. But the strikeouts coming down and his patience at the plate show he’s already come a long way.

“He’s doing all the things you’ve got to do,” Bush said. “You’ve just got to be consistent and keep working at it.”