Chicago Cubs: Javier Baez’s Left Handed Stroke

The Chicago Cubs have found a left handed bat in an unexpected place.

The Chicago Cubs have finally found another bat to add to their sometimes dynamic, sometimes lackluster batting order. No, I am not talking about the scorching Nick Castellanos, the new Patient Ian Happ, or even the back flipping Tony Kemp. I am talking about Left Handed El Mago, Javier Baez.  In case you missed the end of the Cubs-Reds game yesterday. THIS is what I’m talking about.

THAT. WAS. GLORIOUS. One could say let’s step back and relax. The end of the game resembled more beer league softball than major league baseball as Kyle Farmer was getting more lift than a DPRK ballistic missile.

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Anyways, one thing everyone here knows is doing something with your non dominant hand in baseball is really hard. Take a different glove or stand in the other side of the box and 99% of us go from “I know how to play baseball” to “looking like a first time tee baller”. Not Javier Baez though. El Mago comes

But wait – where there is smoke, there is fire and turns out this isn’t the first time Baez has done the switch hitting thing before. He has tried batting left handed during batting practice and it went pretty well.

It’s only a few swings but if there was ever a time to throw sample size out the window, it is in this moment.  Sign me up for the Javy Baez LHH fan club. Looking at the video, you see the same explosive traits with Baez’s upper body along with the natural motion. If this was a video of a random minor leaguer, you wouldn’t bat an eye or think anything different.

The most impressive part is that Baez was hitting home runs out of Wrigley in BP. There are no cheap homers to be had at Wrigley. In addition to the high ivy brick walls, the corners alone are 355 feet. Compare that to more common stadiums in the 330 range or Yankee stadium’s notorious short porch of 314 feet. Impressive stuff.

Baez is a freak athlete but that is something we all already knew. While it would be fun to see Baez be a switch hitter permanently, he’s already an MVP candidate and one of the top players on the Cubs so anything more is just being greedy. Seeing how fluid and natural that swing is makes you wonder what could have been (or couldn’t) if he had seriously pursued hitting lefty.