There are some things defensively that Baez needs to work on, too. He will open the season as the Cubs‘ starting shortstop while Addison Russell completes a 40-game suspension for violating Major League Baseball’s domestic violence policy.
(AP) — It does not take Javier Baez long to show off his magic tricks, even in a spring training game.
The Chicago Cubs star singled in the first inning on Sunday against the Colorado Rockies and stole second, escaping a tag by shortstop Garrett Hampson with a deft swim move.
“I wasn’t planning on doing it — I just reacted to it,” Baez said. “I got a good jump but I took forever to be full speed and the ball beat me. I saw it and just reacted to it. That’s my first attempt to steal a bag in spring training. I just did it. We’ll see how it goes.”
It was just Javy being Javy. Last season, the infielder known as “El Mago” — Spanish for ‘The Magician’ — set career highs with a.290 batting average, 34 home runs, 40 doubles, 21 stolen bases and a league-leading 111 RBIs.
“I had a great year,” Baez said. “I still think I can have a better year.”
Baez, 26, finished second in the NL MVP voting behind the Milwaukee Brewers’ Christian Yelich last season. Baez ranked among the top 20 NL hitters in batting average, but also struck out a career-high 167 times.
“It’s a natural maturation process,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said of what he expects from Baez, who is entering his sixth season. “Probably, more than anything, and he’s on to this, he needs to be a little more structured in his own strike zone, which would be awesome.”
That would mean cutting down on the strikeouts.
