Chicago Cubs fans rejoice as team signs outfielder Ian Happ to three-year, $61 million contract extension: "I’m so Happ-y!" "This is such great news!"

The Chicago Cubs announced a long-awaited contract extension Wednesday, inking outfielder Ian Happ to a three-year, $61 million deal through the 2026 season.

Happ, a first-time National League All-Star and Gold Glove Award winner in 2022, was due to be a free agent after this season. He has spent his entire big league career on the north side of Chicago, debuting in 2017.

Ian Happ entered Wednesday as a career .250/.341/.461 hitter with 105 homers and a 114 OPS+. He hit .271 with 17 home runs with 72 RBIs for the Chicago Cubs last season. Taking over in left field after Kyle Schwarber departed for the Washington Nationals in 2021, Happ posted a 1.000 fielding percentage before posting a .990 percentage in 2022.

In 10 games this season, Happ is hitting .314 with one homer, six RBIs and seven runs.

While Happ was not a member of 2016 World Series champion Cubs, many Chicago fans associate him with the string of top prospects that the team called up to contribute to breaking the team's 108-year streak of not winning the MLB title. While those players — Javy Baez, Kris Bryant, Willson Contreras and Schwarber — are all gone, Happ will be roaming along the ivy-covered outfield walls at Wrigley Field for at least a handful of seasons to come.

After seasons of villifying Chicago Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer as the organization dismantled the 2016 World Series championship team, the Wrigleyville faithful are now praising his name. Happ's extension comes on the heels of the ballclub extending second baseman Nico Hoerner's three-year, $35 million extension signed at the end of March.

Many Chicago Cubs fans assumed that Ian Happ and Willson Contreras would be dealt away before last season's trading deadline. However, with the team unable to find a fair offer, both players remained through the 2022 season. While Contreras left as a free agent to the rival St. Louis Cardinals, it now appears that the Cubs consider Happ to be an integral part of their future.

Ian Happ, Chicago Cubs have an up-and-down history

Ian Happ, left, and Dansby Swanson of the Chicago Cubs celebrate after defeating the Texas Rangers 2-0.

While Happ did not get called up to the Cubs until after the team had won the World Series, he was still a part of some successful Chicago squads before the downturn of the early 2020s.

Happ played for a Cubs team that won 92 games but lost the NL Championship Series in 2017, as well as the 95-win 2018 team that lost the NL Wild Card game. The Cubs again won the NL Central in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, but lost the Wild Card series.

Since then, the Cubs have dropped off to sub-.500 records in 2021 and 2022, but there is opimism in Wrigley Field that the ballclub has turned a corner and is again on an upward trajectory after a 6-4 start to 2023.