The Chicago Cubs have officially begun the transformation of their team after promoting top prospects Kris Bryant and Addison Russell within the past week. With Starlin Castro now vowing to become a better defender, is there room for prospect Javier Baez on the 25-man roster?
Baez joined the Cubs' 25-man roster in 2014, but batted just .169/.227/.324 with 95 strikeouts in 52 games (229 plate appearances) despite recording 25 runs scored, 9 home runs and 20 RBIs. His contact woes continued throughout the offseason in the Puerto Rican Winter League, where he batted .233/.306/.442 with four runs scored, two home runs, seven RBIs and 21 strikeouts in 11 games.
It got even worse during spring training. In March it was reported Baez was told he made the Cubs' 25-man roster as the team's second baseman, but that clearly wasn't the case after he slashed .182/.237/.236 with seven runs scored, one home run, one RBI and 21 strikeouts in 17 games (58 plate appearances). He was sent down to Triple-A Iowa to start the year, but then returned home to the Dominican Republic after his 21-year-old sister unexpectedly passed away on April 8.
He has yet to play a game this season and the recent turn of events may have some thinking the Cubs will move on from the 22-year-old.
"We haven't seen the last of Javier Baez," ESPN's Buster Olney said on the Baseball Tonight Podcast on Tuesday. "He obviously had a really difficult spring training and then his sister passed away and it's not clear when he's going to rejoin the Iowa Cubs. I think that because he was so close to his sister and he's so deeply affected by this, for the moment his career is on hold. The Cubs really think a lot of his skills and his power, and he'll have the same challenge he was going to have when he was initially sent to the minor leagues, but it's just been delayed by his personal situation."
Additionally, CSN Chicago's Patrick Mooney wrote the team is "hopeful" he'll return soon.
"I was told he's getting close to coming back," manager Joe Maddon told Mooney. "From our perspective, we want him to take as much time as he felt was necessary. So I don't know yet. I know it's close. I've heard that there's rumblings of him coming back relatively soon. The kid was crushed by the moment, man. And we all grieve in different manners."
However, if Castro continues to perform well offensively and improve his defense, and Russell shows he's worthy of a permanent spot on the roster, it's unknown where Baez would fit in because he's primarily a middle infielder. His contact problems (specifically high amount of strikeouts) are also significant and haven't shown any improvement since late 2012.
There's no telling right now how the Cubs will utilize Baez, especially since he has yet to play this year, but right now a lot of things may work against him and prevent his promotion to the MLB even if he were to improve in the minors.
