The Chicago Cubs' Best Player Can Do It All

Javier Báez stands out for his incredible versatility—a trait not common to, or usually required of, MLB superstars.

At its highest levels, baseball is a game of repetition. What separates a promising prospect from an everyday major-leaguer, and an everyday major-leaguer from an All Star, is often not so much the sheer grade of talent as the ability to access that particular talent, on demand, inning after inning and game after game. Many players can hit the ball as far as Mike Trout, on their best day, but nobody squares it up as often. Bull pens are full of arms capable of throwing 97-mile-an-hour fastballs, but Jacob deGrom can dependably deliver such a pitch across the strike zone’s outer edge. Baseball’s drive for consistency breeds specialization; it’s impossible to picture the third-base maestro Nolan Arenado or the center fielder Lorenzo Cain anywhere but at their usual position, so attuned are they to the specific demands of their trade.

The case of Javier Báez, then, is a rare one. The 25-year-old has been the best player on the star-laden Chicago Cubs this year, and one of the best in the National League. But a good deal of his value comes from his versatility, a trait not common to—or, usually, required of—MLB superstars. He plays second base, third, and shortstop, all expertly, moving from spot to spot as injuries or off days roil the roster. He influences games in nearly every manner allowed under the rules, stinging line drives and stealing bases and prowling the infield. If Báez has a chance to become one of the central figures of the 2018 postseason, which begins Tuesday evening with the Cubs facing the Colorado Rockies in the wild-card game, he could also emerge as one of the more curious, because nobody knows quite how his importance might manifest on a given night.

https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/10/javier-baez/571882/