Just before he homered tonight – for the third straight game, I might add – Javier Baez took one mean cut at the ball. Later in the game, he made a gigantic stretch to grab a throw from Kris Bryant that was otherwise ticketed for the outfield. Over the weekend, Baez dealt with a sore back.
I have no idea if any one of these individual events led to his removal from tonight’s game, but after Brian Anderson doubled in the seventh, a visibly in pain Javier Baez was met by the trainer and quickly removed by Joe Maddon.
You can watch the play unfold right here at Cubs.com, though it’s difficult to see what, if anything, even noticeable to our eyes actually happened.
The good news is that Baez walked off the field by himself *and* the Cubs were up by eight runs when it happened. It’s entirely possible that this was just an abundance of caution situation (any discomfort at all? You’re out), but I can’t say I’m not concerned.
Worse, we don’t know much of anything on the type of injury right now, but I’m sure that’ll come out shortly. We’ll update this post with more as soon as we know it.
UPDATE: Not the best update:
Javier Baez left today's game with right groin tightness.
— Cubs Talk (@NBCSCubs) May 8, 2018
We don’t know the extent of anything yet, but obviously that’s not a nothing. You wonder if that huge stretch/splits at second base had anything to do with this one, and that, in turn, makes you more nervous that he pulled something. Hopefully he’ll be fine, but you should tentatively brace yourself for Baez to miss some time.