Chicago Cubs: A fan’s take on the evolution of Javier Baez

Javier Baez is now the undisputed most valuable player for the Chicago Cubs and his growth as a player has exceeded the expectations of many around the game.

Ho-hum, Javier Baez with another clutch home run on Saturday. The 26-year-old Chicago Cubs shortstop entered Sunday’s series finale against the Cardinals with a .318/.353/.659 slash, a team-leading 11 home runs and 1.8 fWAR in 30 games. It is still early in the season but Baez has so far continued his great play from 2018 when he finished second in the NL MVP race.

If he keeps this up and puts together another season like 2018, then we can pretty much conclude that Baez not only reached his ceiling but topped it. He obviously was a notable talent for many years both as an MLB player and prospect. The baseball world watched all the hype surrounding him on August 5, 2014 and saw the potential – despite his early struggles. Hard for me or many other fans to say we saw him turn into something this great.

The organization may have seen his ceiling like this, Joe Maddon even went to Puerto Rico in 2015 to see Baez play right after he was hired. However some people, myself included, sometimes wondered how or if he would be in the long-term plans of the team.