Batting .242 with 11 home runs and 48 RBIs, Russell was the starting shortstop at the 2016 Major League Baseball All-Star Game. By the beginning of September of the 2016 season, Russell had 108 hits in 445 at bats with 19 home runs and 88 runs batted in. Russell had a bases-loaded game-winning hit in a late-season game against the San Francisco Giants. He was 9-for-23 (.391) with 24 RBIs in bases-loaded situations for the year; the 9 bases-loaded hits led MLB for the season. In the seventh inning of the same game, in a bases loaded situation, Russell made an acrobatic catch at the left field foul line for the final out of the inning. Russell finished the year with 95 RBIs and became the second Cub shortstop with over 90 for a season. Previously, Hall of Famer Ernie Banks accomplished this feat five times. Russell hit decisive two-run home runs in Games 4 and 5 of that year's National League Championship Series, helping the Cubs break the Curse of the Billy Goat en route to their first World Series win in 108 years.