There are a few different Cubs players that I’m looking forward to seeing what they will do in 2019. I’m anxious to see if Kris Bryant’s shoulder is back to full strength and if he can return to his MVP form of 2016. I’m excited to see what Yu Darvish will do after missing the bulk of 2018 and if he’ll be able to establish himself as the ace of the staff moving forward. I’m also intrigued to see what changes Joe Maddon will implement now that he’s in the final year of his contract and what miracle he’ll need to manage a not-so-pretty bullpen.
While all those story lines will have my attention at the beginning of the season, the story line I’m most interested to see is what Javier Baez will do as an encore after an absolutely stunning 2018 season.
Last season, Baez hit .290 with 34 homers, an NL-leading 111 RBIs, an .881 OPS and 21 stolen bases (all career-highs) and finished behind some Yellich dude from a team in Wisconsin in the NL MVP race. Baez carried the Cubs offense for the bulk of the season and you couldn’t convince me there was a more important player to the team than “El Mago.” His offense, defense, and base running literally won games for the Cubs last year so it’ll be interesting to see what he can do in 2019.
So how do you top it?
What can you possibly improve upon after such a monstrous 2018?
According to Baez, he’s just getting started.
“I can improve on everything.”
I’m one of the most optimistic Cubs fans you’ll ever talk to but I’ll even admit that the likelihood of Javy improving on EVERYTHING this season is highly unlikely. 2018 seemed like one of those seasons for Javy that everything just went right. He stayed relatively healthy, hit the shit out of the ball, provided Gold Glove caliber defense, and was a complete wizard on the base paths. With that said, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Javy return to Earth in 2019 — at least a little.
Even if Javy regresses a bit, you’d have to expect other Cubs players (Bryant, Contreras) to improve upon what they did last season which would essentially offset Baez’s regression. Baseball is a long season and the great teams finds ways to click at the right time, something Baez said last year’s team struggled with.
“At the end of last year, we were not playing together. We have the ability with the guys here to win again. We will be on top of that this year to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
The team goal of having “another great parade” hasn’t changed and the Cubs will need Baez to play just as big of a role this year as he did last season. One major change going into 2019 is the fact that for the first time in his career, Javy will open up the season as the Cubs everyday shortstop since Addison Russell is in the midst of serving a 40-game domestic violence suspension. He was asked about his thoughts on being the Opening Day shortstop for the Cubs and his response was very interesting to me and told me all I need to know about the type of player that he is.
“To be honest, I am looking forward to the chance to win the Gold Glove,” said Baez. “I don’t care if it’s at shortstop, second base, right field or catcher. I am looking for a chance to win the Gold Glove.”
If you recall, Baez finished beind DJ f*cking LaMahieu for the Gold Glove last season, a complete farce but I’ll save that for another time, and I honestly believe Baez’s ability to play any position on the field hurt his chances at winning a Gold Glove. Last year, Baez played 104 games at 2nd base, 65 at shortstop, 22 at third base, and even played a game at first base compared to LaMahieu who played 128 games at 2nd base only.
With Russell not scheduled to return until May 3rd barring any postponements, this is the perfect opportunity for Baez to establish himself as the Cubs everyday shortstop and begin the pursuit for the first Gold Glove in his career.
And in the event that you somehow forgot the defensive wizardry Baez brings day in and day out, just give this a quick glance.
