The long road for Chicago Cubs prospect Javier Baez back to the Major Leagues has taken another down hill turn.
UPDATING: #Cubs infielder @javy23baez fractures a finger on his left hand, will miss at least a month for @IowaCubs. http://t.co/Z0fCXOR9ex
— Minor League Baseball (@MiLB) June 8, 2015
Baez was the Cubs 2011 first round draft pick, being selected 9th overall. Earlier this season, Grading on the Curve questioned whether it was too soon to call Javier Baez a bust. While it may have been a bit premature to do so, looking at his big swing and his Major League debut didn’t make it seem like it was entirely out of the question.
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Last year Baez came up and in his rookie stint with the Cubs he showed the biggest problem in his game: ZERO plate discipline. He has a big swing and doesn’t like to take walks, but the power is there and tantalizing. Looking at his 2014 debut shows just that: Baez drilled 9 home runs in his first 213 big league at bats, but he also struck out 95 times over the same span. Baez struck out 45 percent of the time, and it reflected in his dismal .169 batting average.
Now, I’m not so sure I would personally deem Baez a bust this early in the 22-year old’s career, but I would have no problem saying that his game was still far away from big league ready heading into 2015. Then the season started and Baez finally looked like the prospect the Cubs had once envisioned.
Baez was cruising for the Iowa Cubs in the Pacific Coast League thus far. He had a respectable slash line at .314/.386/.536 with 8 home runs, 29 RBI and 7 stolen bases in 8 chances. More importantly, his swing is maturing as he has only struck out in 25 percent of his plate appearances. Baez is in such a groove that the there night he blasted a monstrous home run off the light tower.
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Baez had been playing third base the last five games and many felt it was to get him ready for an imminent call up. Baez had fought back and removed the label of free swinger and appeared to be ready to head back to The Show. And then he broke his finger.
In the seventh inning yesterday, Baez slid headfirst into second on a successful steal attempt. He jammed his third finger on his left hand and the Cubs received the bad news that it was broken. Baez will be on the shelf for at least a month, but the expectations are that he will miss two full months.
What’s next for Baez? Should he miss the next two months, that brings him back in August. Will one month swinging a bat after a broken finger be enough to merit a September call-up? Most likely not and they surging Baez will have to put his big league dreams on hold once again.