Ask any Cubs fan who the most electric player on the team is this season and I’d be willing to bet my life savings you’d only hear one answer:
Javier Baez.
The 25-year-old super utility player has blessed Cubs fans with dazzling play after dazzling play for the past three years on the North side of Chicago and has undoubtedly been the biggest surprise thus far in 2018. He was robbed of the MLB Player of the Month in April after posting a ridiculous slash line of .303/.347/.685 while leading the NL in RBIs most of the month as well as out-slugging future Cub Bryce Harper the entire month.
Javy’s hot streak came at a perfect time as the rest of his Cubs teammates (outside of Mr. Consistency, Kris Bryant) struggled big time at the plate. Now that rest of the team have gotten their swagger back, Javy has come back down to Earth after a ridiculous month of April. His slash line numbers have all dropped and his presence in the field has been littered with eight uncharacteristic errors.
With that said, Baez is STILL the most electric player in the goddamn league and he could care less about a slight drop in his offensive numbers or a couple of miscues in the field.
“I’ve been making errors, but the next day, I’m out there taking ground balls and trying to get better.”
That attitude has led to Baez to emerge as yet another legitimate threat in an already loaded Cubs lineup. We can sit here and talk about OBP, OPS, wRC+ and all the other sabermetrics shit that people love to babble about but the fact of the matter is, Baez has the intangibles that sabermetrics can’t measure.
Early on during yesterday’s 8-4 victory over the Chicago White Sox, Baez pulled of yet another magical play. It wasn’t in the field or at the plate — it was on the base paths. Cubs fans have been spoiled watching Javy run the bases like a f*cking wizard and he’s even created a patented “swim move” slide that he’s showcased numerous times while on the base paths.
And he was at it yet again yesterday……
.@javy23baez with some slide of hand. #ElMago pic.twitter.com/NVZpaxj5Iw
— MLB (@MLB) May 12, 2018
Baez has gotten so good at this “swim move” slide that even he doesn’t know how the hell to explain how awesome it is.
Javy on his slide: I don't know how to explain it. But when he caught the ball, everything slowed down for me. That's how I see it. I just went around the tag. I don't know how I do it, I don't know how I react to it.
— Sahadev Sharma (@sahadevsharma) May 13, 2018
Joe Maddon also raved about Baez base running skills earlier in the season when he dropped one of the quotes of the year thus far in 2018. When referencing Javy’s base running skills, Maddon said,
“He’s got eyes in the back of his head, he’s going to make a great parent.”
One thing is for certain, if his parenting skills are anything like his baseball skills, Javy’s future child will be in good hands.
