The Keystones
Cubs catcher David Ross, playing his 15th and final major-league season, called Javier Baez the best defensive player he has played with. Pitcher Kyle Hendricks said Baez has the best instincts he has seen.
Third baseman Kris Bryant and manager Joe Maddon suggested baseball create a Gold Glove Award for utility players in Baez's honor. He arguably is the team's best third baseman, shortstop and second baseman but has embraced being something of a defensive vagabond.
Maddon said Baez likely would find a permanent home at second base someday. He has manned every infield position, plus left field. He's the team's emergency catcher.
“He tops everyone with the amount of gloves he has,” shortstop Addison Russell said. “Even the pitchers.”
He recently pared the collection he carries with him to three or four.
He has used them well.
Baez, who has a tattoo of his sister Noely, who died in 2015, on his right shoulder, played 62 games at third, 59 at second and 25 at short this season, making him the first player in baseball history to play at least 25 at each position in one season.
His 11 defensive runs saved at second base during the regular season tied him for second in the majors with the Mariners' Robinson Cano — in almost 1,000 fewer innings than Cano played there.
He has made throws from angles that seem impossible to quantify — from his back, from his side. The latest occurred Tuesday, when Baez fired a 72-mph, cross-body bouncer to first that so impressed the umpire, he called the Giants' Denard Span out before replay ruled otherwise.
He has developed a reputation around the big leagues for being the best tagger around.
“He has done some things on the field I haven't seen,” Russell said. “The type of talent he has, not only with the glove but on the offensive side ... he's a heavy slugger.”
But one who struck out at an alarming 41.5 percent rate when he was called up in 2014. The number dropped to 30 percent in 28 major-league games in 2015.
This year Baez is down to 24 percent. He batted .375 with a home run, two RBIs and four runs scored in the NLDS and hit .273 with 14 homers and 59 RBIs during the regular season.
None of this surprised brother Gadiel Baez.
“I knew he was going to be something big,” he said. “I knew this moment would come.”
Growing up playing baseball in Florida, Addison Russell knew where he would wind up.
“It was always my love to just get dirty,” he said. “At shortstop, you get to move left and right, get to jump, show off your arm, so initially shortstop was a no-brainer.”
In his first full season at the position for the Cubs, Russell has emerged as one of the best all-around shortstops in the game. At 22, he added power to his repertoire, became a solid run producer and continued to make spectacular plays in the field, which is likely to lead to his first Gold Glove Award.
Russell was voted to the National League All-Star team in July and no longer is considered just one of the many talented Cubs prospects. He has evolved into a star.
“It's definitely a blessing and humbling at the same time,” Russell said. “I just go about my business the same way. The attention is nice and the opportunity is grand, always. And I'm very fortunate and lucky to have all of that. It's one of the many reasons I do what I do, so I can inspire people and touch some lives along the way.
“I know my family is happy with my success, and without my family I wouldn't be where I'm at today, without my wife, Melisa, doing what she does. It's just one big contributing factor.”
Russell, who is half-Filipino and half-black, grew up in Pensacola, Fla., the oldest of four siblings. His parents were young when he was born, so he spent a lot of time helping raise his younger siblings.
“I played a lot of baseball and football and babysat my (siblings) when I wasn't playing sports,” he said. “That's where the time went.”
Russell has been healthy all year after missing the NL Championship Series last year with a hamstring injury he suffered in Game 3 of the division series against the Cardinals. He conceded it was “pretty tough” to sit and watch the Cubs lose in four games to the Mets, but he knew they would get another chance.
“You live and learn, man,” he said. “That's the big thing about this year. I listened to my body and made sure I was healthy.
“It all comes down to this, right now.”
He and Melisa have two young children at home, so Russell has his hands full on and off the field. But he said it has helped him become a better man and a better player, and he knows he has more to learn.
“I'm young and I'm still learning,” he said. “(I) just can't wait to see where I'm going to be at in five years.”
He's not alone.
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