By Jorge Arangure Jr.
New York Times
Just before the start of Javier Baez’s senior season at Arlington Country Day School in Jacksonville, Florida, the baseball team’s starting shortstop sustained a season-ending injury that prompted a major shift of the defensive alignment. The maneuvering ended with Baez, the team’s catcher, moving to shortstop.
Baez did not think much of what would have been a drastic change for others. In his high school career, Baez, aside from playing catcher, had played second base, third base and center field. He ended up thriving during his senior year despite the position change. After the season, Baez was selected ninth overall by the Chicago Cubs in the 2011 draft - as a shortstop.
The Cubs did not know it then, but Baez’s versatility would end up being his best quality as he got close to reaching the major leagues. The Cubs now have baseball’s most enviable problem: too many good young shortstops.
Shortstops are generally the worst hitters among position players in the majors. Shortstops recently had a .681 on-base plus slugging percentage, ranking ahead of only pitchers. The Cubs have four young players on their active roster - Baez, Starlin Castro, Junior Lake and Arismendy Alcantara - who were signed or drafted as amateur shortstops.
To accommodate Castro, an All-Star who led the National League in hits in 2011, the Cubs moved Baez, 21 and rated by Baseball Prospectus as baseball’s fourth-best prospect, to second base. Arismendy, a top-100 prospect, was moved to center field. Lake was shifted to the outfield. And that does not account for shortstop Addison Russell, Baseball Prospectus’s seventh-best prospect, who was acquired by the Cubs in a trade that sent the ace Jeff Samardzija to the Oakland Athletics.
The New York Mets, whose shortstops ranked 26th in baseball with a .600 OPS, would love to have such a problem. The assumption is that the Mets may make a play for Castro during the off-season. But Cubs general manager Jed Hoyer said he did not believe he needed to trade any of his shortstops, saying they could coexist on the same team - albeit at different positions - because shortstops were usually the most athletic players on a team and could more easily transition to other positions.
One American League team executive, who requested anonymity because he did not want to comment publicly on another team, said he would put Russell at shortstop, Baez at third and Castro at second.
“Russell has the best fundamentals,” the executive said.
But a different AL team scout said: “From what I’ve seen, Castro moves for sure. Russell has the edge over Baez.”
There is no true consensus, even within the Cubs organization, as to how the situation will play out.
“Putting them in the right position for us to be winners is going to be quite the challenge,” said the Cubs special assistant Tim Wilken, who was the scouting director when the team drafted Baez. “But it’s a real good problem.”
And then there is the not-so-inconsequential fact that Castro is a three-time All-Star at shortstop, even if he may not be the best suited for the position.
“I think I’m a shortstop,” Castro said. “I think I showed a lot of people that I can be good at my position. I don’t have the control, but a lot of people see me and a lot of people know that I can handle that position in my career. Because that’s the position I’ve always played. I’ve showed people that I can be there my entire career.”
For the moment, the position belongs to Castro.
“He’s been an All-Star three of the five years he’s been in the league, so he should want to stay there,” Hoyer said. “I’m glad to hear him say that. That’s how we see it.”
Baez seems amenable to moving around the infield as many times as necessary.
“Honestly, I like playing second base, and it’s not a difficult position for me to play,” Baez said in Spanish. “But really, I don’t know how things will work out. I don’t know if I’ll have to play different positions each year. It all depends on what the coaches tell you.”
Baez’s short stint in the majors has already had some extreme highs and lows. Still, his arrival in the majors has been seen as a triumph for the Cubs’ attempted revival and for Baez’s own difficult path toward expected stardom.
In 2004, Baez’s family moved from Bayamón, Puerto Rico, to North Carolina to find better health care for his sister Noely, who had been born with spina bifida. Earlier that year, Baez’s father had died after contracting a mysterious illness while working as a municipal landscaper. Baez’s mother, Nelida Agosto, and his older brother, Rolando Agosto, were forced to take on the family’s financial responsibilities.
“You can’t go back in time and change things,” Baez said. “I was strong, and I kept fighting for my life and my family’s life. Obviously, you miss not having a father to help counsel you during tough times. But you have to move forward. You have to learn to do things for yourself sometimes. It’s not easy.”
Shortly after moving to North Carolina, Baez, then 12, asked his mother if he could move back to Puerto Rico. The area’s cold winter climate made it impossible for him to play baseball year round. Instead, Agosto moved her three children to Jacksonville, where she had a friend.
Eventually, Baez starred in local baseball leagues and caught the attention of coaches at the private school Arlington Country Day, who offered him a scholarship after his eighth-grade year.
But it was what Arlington Country Day offered Baez before his senior season that truly changed his life: a chance to play shortstop.
