Batting .242 with 11 home runs and 48 RBIs, Russell was the starting shortstop at the 2016 Major League Baseball All-Star Game.[25] 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 the game-winning hit in a late-season game against the SF Giants and was 8-for-18 (.444) with 23 RBIs in bases-loaded situations for the year.[26] 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.[27] Russell finished the year with 95 RBIs and became the second Cub shortstop with over 90 for a season. Previously, hall of famer Ernie Banksaccomplished this feat five times.
On October 25, 2016, Addison Russell along with teammates Dexter Fowler, Jason Heyward, and Carl Edwards Jr., became the first African-Americans to play for the Cubs in a World Series game. Both Russell and Fowler are the first African-Americans to start for the Cubs in a World Series due to it being the first World Series the Cubs have played in since desegregation.[28][29][30][a] Addison hit the 19th grand slam in the history of the World Series in the sixth game and also tied a MLB record of 6 RBI by one player in a game on a team facing elimination from the fall classic. He is the first player of Filipino-American descent to hit a grand slam in a World Series game. It was the first World Series grand slam since Paul Konerko of the Chicago White Sox in the 2005 World Series.