Chicago Cubs still believe in Javier Baez despite rookie woes

Javier Baez came to the major leagues with a bang, clubbing three home runs in his first three major league games.

But the 21-year-old Chicago Cubs rookie went downhill fast from there.

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He had an almost inconceivable (for a non-pitcher anyway) 95 strikeouts in 52 games and hit .169/.227/.324 with nine homers and 20 RBI.

But did we mention … 95 strikeouts in 52 games?

That hasn’t stopped Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein from believing Baez is their guy to play second base on Opening Day and beyond in 2015.

"“Javy is very likely to be given the opportunity to show he can make those adjustments at the big-league level,” Epstein told Comcast Sports Net Chicago. “We believe he will. He’s got some of the best raw ingredients to work with in all of Major League Baseball.”"

Baez joined the Cubs on Aug. 5 after hitting .260/.323/.510 in 104 games at Triple-A Iowa, where he had 24 doubles, 23 homers and 80 RBI and also struck out 130 times in 388 at-bats.

Baez was the ninth overall pick in the 2011 draft out of the Arlington Country Day School in Jacksonville, Fla., and was born in Puerto Rico.

Baez wound up starting 27 games at shortstop after Starlin Castro was injured late in the year and made 25 starts at second base.

But adjustments will be key for Baez in 2015. That strikeout rate of 95 in 52 games equates to 296 whiffs over a 162-game season—which would be some sort of record.

Actually it would be one whale of a record. Mark Reynolds holds the all-time single season mark for bat drags of shame with 223 strikeouts in 2009 when he was with the Arizona Diamondbacks. Of the six 200-strikeout seasons in baseball history, Reynolds has three of them.

That’s probably not company you want to keep.

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