The 2016 Chicago Cubs used 45 players to go 103-58-1, the best record in the majors, and won the franchise's first World Series since 1908. Kris Bryant won the National League MVP. Anthony Rizzo drove in 109 runs, and five starters made at least 29 starts each. This page lists the full 2016 Cubs roster with regular-season stats, the 25 players Chicago took into the World Series and how the team came back from three games to one down against Cleveland.
Key takeaways
- The Cubs finished 103-58-1, eight more wins than any other team, and outscored their opponents 808 to 556.
- 45 players appeared for Chicago during the season. Twenty-five made the World Series roster, including Kyle Schwarber, who had four regular-season at-bats after tearing his ACL and LCL in April and then hit .412 in the Series.
- Chicago trailed Cleveland three games to one and won the last three. Game 7 went 10 innings, with a 17-minute rain delay before the 10th.
- Bryant won the NL MVP with 29 of the 30 first-place votes, and Ben Zobrist was the World Series MVP after hitting .357 in the Series.
What was the 2016 Cubs' record?
The Cubs went 103-58 with one tie under manager Joe Maddon and won the NL Central. No other team won more than 95 games. Their 808 runs scored and 556 allowed point to an even better team, 107-54 by the Pythagorean estimate on Baseball-Reference's 2016 Cubs page. They drew 3,232,420 fans to Wrigley Field.
They went 11-6 in the postseason, beating San Francisco 3-1 in the Division Series, the Los Angeles Dodgers 4-2 in the Championship Series and Cleveland 4-3 in the World Series. Counting the playoffs, that's 114 wins.
2016 Cubs World Series roster
The Cubs set their World Series roster on October 25, 2016, the day of Game 1 in Cleveland, with 11 pitchers and 14 position players. The one change from the NLCS roster was Schwarber in place of left-hander Rob Zastryzny, CBS Sports reported. Numbers and positions follow the Cubs' roster release on MLB.com, and the last column shows each player's World Series line.
| No. | Player | Position | WS games | World Series line |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | David Ross | C | 3 | 2-for-5, 1 HR, 2 RBI |
| 5 | Albert Almora Jr. | OF | 3 | 0-for-1 |
| 6 | Carl Edwards Jr. | RHP | 3 | 2.2 IP, 6.75 ERA, 2 K |
| 8 | Chris Coghlan | OF | 4 | 0-for-3 |
| 9 | Javier Báez | INF | 7 | 5-for-30, 1 HR, 1 RBI |
| 12 | Kyle Schwarber | OF/C | 5 | 7-for-17, 2 RBI, 3 BB |
| 17 | Kris Bryant | INF | 7 | 7-for-26, 2 HR, 2 RBI |
| 18 | Ben Zobrist | INF | 7 | 10-for-28, 2 RBI |
| 22 | Jason Heyward | OF | 6 | 3-for-20 |
| 24 | Dexter Fowler | OF | 7 | 7-for-30, 2 HR, 2 RBI |
| 27 | Addison Russell | INF | 7 | 6-for-27, 1 HR, 9 RBI |
| 28 | Kyle Hendricks | RHP | 2 | 9.0 IP, 1.00 ERA, 8 K |
| 34 | Jon Lester | LHP | 3 | 14.2 IP, 3.68 ERA, 16 K, 1 W |
| 37 | Travis Wood | LHP | 3 | 1.2 IP, 5.40 ERA, 2 K |
| 38 | Mike Montgomery | LHP | 5 | 4.2 IP, 1.93 ERA, 4 K, 1 SV |
| 40 | Willson Contreras | C | 7 | 2-for-19, 1 RBI |
| 41 | John Lackey | RHP | 1 | 5.0 IP, 3.60 ERA, 5 K |
| 44 | Anthony Rizzo | INF | 7 | 9-for-25, 1 HR, 5 RBI |
| 46 | Pedro Strop | RHP | 3 | 2.0 IP, 0.00 ERA, 2 K |
| 47 | Miguel Montero | C | 4 | 1-for-4, 1 RBI |
| 49 | Jake Arrieta | RHP | 2 | 11.1 IP, 2.38 ERA, 15 K, 2 W |
| 52 | Justin Grimm | RHP | 3 | 2.0 IP, 18.00 ERA, 2 K |
| 54 | Aroldis Chapman | LHP | 5 | 7.2 IP, 3.52 ERA, 11 K, 1 W, 1 SV |
| 56 | Héctor Rondón | RHP | 2 | 2.1 IP, 3.86 ERA, 2 K |
| 68 | Jorge Soler | OF | 2 | 2-for-5 |
Schwarber tore the ACL and LCL in his knee in early April and played only two regular-season games, so his spot was a surprise. He tested the knee in the Arizona Fall League the weekend before the Series, started Game 1 at designated hitter and went 7-for-17 with three walks. Addison Russell drove in nine runs in the Series, six of them in Game 6 with a two-run double and a grand slam.
2016 Cubs roster: hitters
DreamDraft's catalogue lists hitters with at least 80 at-bats for the team that season. The last column shows the spots each hitter can fill in DreamDraft.
| Player | G | AB | AVG | OBP | SLG | HR | RBI | SB | DreamDraft spots |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kris Bryant | 155 | 603 | .292 | .385 | .554 | 39 | 102 | 8 | 1B, 3B, LF, CF, RF, DH |
| Anthony Rizzo | 155 | 583 | .292 | .385 | .544 | 32 | 109 | 3 | 1B, DH |
| Jason Heyward | 142 | 530 | .230 | .306 | .325 | 7 | 49 | 11 | LF, CF, RF, DH |
| Addison Russell | 151 | 525 | .238 | .321 | .417 | 21 | 95 | 5 | SS, DH |
| Ben Zobrist | 147 | 523 | .272 | .386 | .446 | 18 | 76 | 6 | 2B, LF, CF, RF, DH |
| Dexter Fowler | 125 | 456 | .276 | .393 | .447 | 13 | 48 | 13 | LF, CF, RF, DH |
| Javier Báez | 142 | 421 | .273 | .314 | .423 | 14 | 59 | 12 | 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, DH |
| Willson Contreras | 76 | 252 | .282 | .357 | .488 | 12 | 35 | 2 | C, LF, CF, RF, DH |
| Miguel Montero | 86 | 241 | .216 | .327 | .357 | 8 | 33 | 1 | C, DH |
| Jorge Soler | 86 | 227 | .238 | .333 | .436 | 12 | 31 | 0 | LF, CF, RF, DH |
| Matt Szczur | 107 | 185 | .259 | .312 | .400 | 5 | 24 | 2 | LF, CF, RF, DH |
| David Ross | 67 | 166 | .229 | .338 | .446 | 10 | 32 | 0 | C, DH |
| Tommy La Stella | 74 | 148 | .270 | .357 | .405 | 2 | 11 | 0 | 2B, 3B, DH |
| Albert Almora Jr. | 47 | 112 | .277 | .308 | .455 | 3 | 14 | 0 | LF, CF, RF, DH |
| Chris Coghlan | 48 | 103 | .252 | .391 | .388 | 1 | 16 | 1 | 1B, LF, CF, RF, DH |
2016 Cubs roster: pitchers
Pitchers need at least 25 innings for the team that season. Those with five or more starts can fill a starting rotation spot in DreamDraft, and the rest fill the closer spot. Innings use baseball notation, so 202.2 means 202 and two-thirds.
| Player | G | GS | W | ERA | WHIP | IP | K | SV | DreamDraft spot |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jon Lester | 32 | 32 | 19 | 2.44 | 1.02 | 202.2 | 197 | 0 | Starter |
| Jake Arrieta | 31 | 31 | 18 | 3.10 | 1.08 | 197.1 | 190 | 0 | Starter |
| Kyle Hendricks | 31 | 30 | 16 | 2.13 | 0.98 | 190.0 | 170 | 0 | Starter |
| John Lackey | 29 | 29 | 11 | 3.35 | 1.06 | 188.1 | 180 | 0 | Starter |
| Jason Hammel | 30 | 30 | 15 | 3.83 | 1.21 | 166.2 | 144 | 0 | Starter |
| Mike Montgomery | 17 | 5 | 1 | 2.82 | 1.30 | 38.1 | 38 | 0 | Starter |
| Trevor Cahill | 50 | 1 | 4 | 2.74 | 1.28 | 65.2 | 66 | 0 | Closer |
| Travis Wood | 77 | 0 | 4 | 2.95 | 1.13 | 61.0 | 47 | 0 | Closer |
| Justin Grimm | 68 | 0 | 2 | 4.10 | 1.33 | 52.2 | 65 | 0 | Closer |
| Héctor Rondón | 54 | 0 | 2 | 3.53 | 0.98 | 51.0 | 58 | 18 | Closer |
| Pedro Strop | 54 | 0 | 2 | 2.85 | 0.89 | 47.1 | 60 | 0 | Closer |
| Carl Edwards Jr. | 36 | 0 | 0 | 3.75 | 0.81 | 36.0 | 52 | 2 | Closer |
| Adam Warren | 29 | 1 | 3 | 5.91 | 1.43 | 35.0 | 27 | 0 | Closer |
| Aroldis Chapman | 28 | 0 | 1 | 1.01 | 0.83 | 26.2 | 46 | 16 | Closer |
The other 16 players who appeared for the 2016 Cubs
These players saw less time than DreamDraft's 80 at-bat and 25-inning marks, so they're outside the game's 2016 Cubs pool. Their lines come from the SABR Lahman Baseball Database and count only their games with Chicago.
| Player | Position | G | 2016 line with the Cubs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tim Federowicz | C | 17 | 6-for-31, 3 RBI |
| Munenori Kawasaki | 2B, 3B | 14 | 7-for-21, 1 RBI |
| Jeimer Candelario | 3B | 5 | 1-for-11, 2 BB |
| Ryan Kalish | OF | 7 | 2-for-7, 2 RBI |
| Kyle Schwarber | OF | 2 | 0-for-4, 1 BB |
| Clayton Richard | P | 25 | 14.0 IP, 6.43 ERA, 1 SV |
| Spencer Patton | P | 16 | 21.1 IP, 5.48 ERA |
| Joe Smith | P | 16 | 14.1 IP, 2.51 ERA |
| Félix Peña | P | 11 | 9.0 IP, 4.00 ERA, 1 SV |
| Rob Zastryzny | P | 8 | 16.0 IP, 1.12 ERA |
| Neil Ramirez | P | 8 | 7.2 IP, 4.70 ERA |
| Joel Peralta | P | 5 | 4.0 IP, 9.00 ERA |
| Gerardo Concepción | P | 3 | 2.1 IP, 3.86 ERA |
| Joe Nathan | P | 3 | 2.0 IP, 0.00 ERA |
| Jake Buchanan | P | 2 | 6.0 IP, 1.50 ERA |
| Brian Matusz | P | 1 | 3.0 IP, 18.00 ERA |
How the Cubs won the 2016 World Series
Cleveland won Game 1, 6-0, and Chicago took Game 2, 5-1. The Indians won Games 3 and 4 at Wrigley Field, 1-0 and 7-2, for a 3-1 series lead. The Cubs won Game 5 by 3-2 at Wrigley and Game 6 by 9-3 in Cleveland, where Russell's third-inning grand slam made it 7-0.
Game 7 and the rain delay
Dexter Fowler led off Game 7 with a home run against Corey Kluber, and Chicago built a 5-1 lead by the fifth inning. David Ross, playing the last game of his career, homered off Andrew Miller in the sixth to make it 6-3. Cleveland scored three runs in the eighth, the last two on Rajai Davis's home run off Aroldis Chapman, and the game was tied 6-6 after nine.
Rain stopped play for 17 minutes before the 10th, and Jason Heyward gathered his teammates in the weight room. Looking back on the Ross and Rizzo Unfiltered podcast in 2026, Heyward said he could tell the team wasn't thinking the way it usually did, and with no game the next day, he didn't want to wait to talk it out. (Ross and Rizzo Unfiltered, 8:03) He reminded them they'd won 103 games and were the best team in baseball. (10:18) Zobrist remembers the message as all of them having each other's backs, the way they had all year. (Ross and Rizzo Unfiltered, 56:03) He said the tarp was coming off as they finished talking. (57:17)
Schwarber opened the 10th with a single off Bryan Shaw, and Albert Almora Jr. ran for him. Almora tagged up and took second on Bryant's fly ball to center, so Cleveland walked Rizzo intentionally. Zobrist said he knew the walk was coming. (58:15) He went up planning to stay inside Shaw's cutter and push it to the left side, which he said wasn't his strength. (59:11) He doubled to left to score Almora. Years later, Yan Gomes, a Cleveland catcher in 2016 who later played for the Cubs, told him that Cleveland had moved third baseman José Ramírez two steps toward second base two pitches earlier. The same ball hit two pitches sooner, Zobrist said, would have been a double play. (1:01:13)
After another intentional walk, to Russell, Miguel Montero singled in Rizzo for an 8-6 lead. Carl Edwards Jr. got two outs in the bottom of the 10th, then walked Brandon Guyer, who scored on a Davis single. Mike Montgomery came in and got Michael Martinez to ground softly to Bryant, who threw to Rizzo for the final out.
Ross had entered in the fifth, and his throwing error and a Jon Lester wild pitch let two runs score. Right after the final out, he told MLB's interviewer he was exhausted and called his teammates resilient winners who never quit. (MLB, 0:07) He joked that anyone with his swing would have looked stunned rounding the bases, and said it felt good to get a run back after the two that scored when he came in. (0:44)
Jason Heyward walks David Ross and Anthony Rizzo through the Game 7 rain delay meeting he called in Cleveland.
Watch on YouTubeBen Zobrist talks with Ross and Rizzo about the rain delay meeting and his go-ahead double off Bryan Shaw.
Watch on YouTubeDavid Ross talks about Game 7 and his home run right after the final out of his last game.
Watch on YouTubeZobrist was named World Series MVP, according to Baseball-Reference's 2016 World Series page. The title was the Cubs' first since 1908, a gap of 108 years.
Who were the best players on the 2016 Cubs?
Bryant hit .292 with 39 home runs, 102 RBI and 121 runs scored, and he won the NL MVP with 29 of the 30 first-place votes. Rizzo matched his .292 average and .385 on-base percentage, hit 32 home runs and led the team with 109 RBI. Russell, a 22-year-old shortstop, drove in 95. Fowler's .393 on-base percentage was the best among the regulars.
The rotation carried the team. Hendricks and Lester finished first and second in the majors in ERA among qualified pitchers, Hendricks at 2.13 over 190 innings and Lester at 2.44 over 202.2 with 19 wins. Arrieta won 18, and Lester, Arrieta, Hendricks, Hammel and Lackey each made at least 29 starts. In the bullpen, Chapman, acquired from the Yankees during the season, posted a 1.01 ERA in 28 games for Chicago, and Héctor Rondón saved 18.
How to draft the 2016 Cubs in DreamDraft
You can draft the 29 players in the hitter and pitcher tables in three formats.
- World Series Draft reveals only verified World Series champions from 1903 on, so the 2016 Cubs are in its pool.
- Year Draft keeps every reveal inside one season. Choose 2016 and the Cubs can come up next to every other 2016 club.
- Franchise Draft keeps you with one club across its history. Choose the Cubs and 2016 is one of the seasons you can draw.
A DreamDraft baseball roster has 13 spots, with nine hitters (catcher, first base, second base, third base, shortstop, three outfielders and a designated hitter), three starting pitchers and a closer. Each reveal shows one team-season, and you take one player from it. Versatile players help. Bryant can fill six different spots and Báez can fill five, so they're easy to fit late in a draft. Schwarber and the other short-stint players above sit outside the pool.
You see each player's real 2016 stats while you pick. The game keeps its player ratings hidden until your roster is complete, then gives you a game estimate for the season. Signed-in players get three ranked solo drafts a day on each board (five with DreamDraft Pro), and finished World Series Draft rosters appear on the World Series Draft leaderboard. The baseball game guide covers every format, and our answer on the best baseball team of all time compares the greatest single seasons.
Download the data
- The 2016 Cubs full roster CSV lists all 45 players who appeared for Chicago in the 2016 regular season, with batting, pitching and games at each position from the Lahman database, a Baseball-Reference link for each player and whether he made the World Series roster or DreamDraft's pool.
- The 2016 Cubs World Series roster CSV has the 25 players with their uniform numbers, listed positions and Series lines, added up from MLB's official game feeds.
Each table above also has its own CSV download.
Frequently asked questions
Who was on the 2016 Cubs World Series roster?
Eleven pitchers and 14 position players. The pitchers were Jake Arrieta, Aroldis Chapman, Carl Edwards Jr., Justin Grimm, Kyle Hendricks, John Lackey, Jon Lester, Mike Montgomery, Héctor Rondón, Pedro Strop and Travis Wood. The position players were Albert Almora Jr., Javier Báez, Kris Bryant, Chris Coghlan, Willson Contreras, Dexter Fowler, Jason Heyward, Miguel Montero, Anthony Rizzo, David Ross, Addison Russell, Kyle Schwarber, Jorge Soler and Ben Zobrist.
Who was the 2016 World Series MVP?
Ben Zobrist. He hit .357 in the Series, 10-for-28, and his double in the 10th inning of Game 7 drove in the go-ahead run. During the regular season he hit .272 with 18 home runs and 76 RBI while playing second base and the outfield.
How many games did the 2016 Cubs win?
They won 103 regular-season games and finished 103-58 with one tie. Counting the playoffs, they went 114-64.
What did Jason Heyward say in the rain delay?
By his own account on Ross and Rizzo Unfiltered, Heyward reminded the team that it had won 103 games and was the best team in baseball, and he told them to go back out and play like themselves. Zobrist says the mood had changed by the time they walked out, and the Cubs scored twice in the 10th.
Which 2016 Cubs still played in 2026?
Seven players from the 2016 team appeared in the majors during the 2026 regular season, according to MLB's official stats. Javier Báez played for the Detroit Tigers, Aroldis Chapman and Willson Contreras for the Boston Red Sox, Jeimer Candelario and Jorge Soler for the Los Angeles Angels, Carl Edwards Jr. for the New York Mets and Kyle Schwarber for the Philadelphia Phillies.
When did the Cubs last win the World Series before 2016?
In 1908. The Cubs won back-to-back titles in 1907 and 1908, and 2016 was their next.
Sources
- 2016 Chicago Cubs statistics, Baseball-Reference, for the record, run totals, Pythagorean record, attendance, manager and postseason series.
- 2016 World Series, Baseball-Reference, for game scores, the series MVP and Series batting lines.
- 2016 awards voting, Baseball-Reference, for the NL MVP vote.
- Chicago Cubs set World Series roster, MLB.com, October 25, 2016, for the 25-man roster, uniform numbers and positions.
- World Series 2016: Kyle Schwarber on Cubs roster, could serve as DH, R.J. Anderson, CBS Sports, October 25, 2016, for the Schwarber and Zastryzny change and his knee injury.
- MLB Stats API Game 7 feed, for the Game 7 play-by-play and the 17-minute delay. The World Series lines in the roster table add up the official feeds for all seven games (game IDs 487631 to 487637).
- The SABR Lahman Baseball Database, published under CC BY-SA 3.0, for all 45 players who appeared for the 2016 Cubs, their RBI totals, the 2016 ERA leaders and the list of World Series champions, including the Cubs' titles in 1907, 1908 and 2016.
- DreamDraft's baseball catalogue, for the hitter and pitcher tables and DreamDraft spots. Its 2016 Cubs records come from MLB's official Stats API, and every figure in those tables matches the Lahman database.
- MLB Stats API 2026 regular-season team statistics, captured October 29, 2026, for the 2016 Cubs who played in 2026.