A year after Fergie Jenkins earned a statue in Gallagher Way, fellow Cubs icon Ryne Sandberg will also be immortalized forever.

On Saturday at Cubs Convention, chairman Tom Ricketts announced Sandberg would be the next to earn a statue outside Wrigley Field. Sandberg will join Jenkins, Ernie Banks, Billy Williams and Ron Santo.

Sandberg was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2005 and secured a spot in the Cubs Hall of Fame in 2021. The organization also retired his jersey number 23 and it hangs as a flag on the foul pole at Wrigley Field.

“I was a little caught off guard,” Sandberg said of the honor in an interview with Elise Menaker. “I look forward to the Cubs Convention every year. I had the pleasure to spend an hour and a half with Mark Grace and Shawon Dunston last night. Andre Dawson’s here, [Rick] Sutcliffe, Lee Smith — all former teammates. So to have this announcement today with all those guys present in the hotel means everything to me.

“It’s pretty cool because of the statues that are there already, I know all of them. Harry Caray and Billy Williams, Ernie Banks, Ron Santo, Fergie Jenkins — so to join them and be a part of that class and be a part of Wrigley Field for the fans is totally awesome.”

He spent 15 years with the Cubs from 1982-1997 (he did not play in the ’95 season). During that time, Sandberg posted a .285/.344/.452 slash line (.795 OPS) with 282 homers, 1,061 RBI, 1,316 runs and 344 stolen bases.

Sandberg earned National League MVP honors in 1984, a year in which he led the league in runs (114) and triples (19) while also batting .314 with 200 hits, an .887 OPS and 19 homers.

He was named to the All-Star team a whopping 10 times, earned 9 Gold Gloves at second base and 7 Silver Sluggers.

Only 3 players (Banks, Williams and Cap Anson) had more hits than Sandberg’s 2,385 in a Cubs uniform and he also ranked 3rd in runs, 5th in homers and 4th in stolen bases.

In total, Sandberg was worth 68.0 WAR over his career.