The Báez, Bryant, Rizzo Trio Hits the Heart, More Love for Davis, Chirinos, Steele, and Other Cubs Bullets

Love up front for Brennen Davis, who not only slid into FanGraphs’ top 20 prospects, he also made it into the top 20 in Keith Law’s updated list, too. You don’t want to put too much pressure on a 21-year-old at Double-A, but the Cubs haven’t had a prospect like Davis in four years (he’s approaching Eloy Jimenez territory – in terms of prospect ranking and perception (not necessarily in terms of projection or player type) – at the time of his trade to the White Sox).

•   Seeing Javy Báez homer to score Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo, and seeing the trio meet at home plate yesterday … yeah. If that didn’t give you feelings and thoughts and anticipation and just a jumbled mess of all kinds of things, I would be shocked. I still don’t think the reality of what’s coming has quite set in for me at a fan level – what could be next, what these guys have meant, what it has been to be able to watch them together for so long – and I’ve just been so focused on covering the story. That homer, though, it tripped me up for a moment.

 

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•   Oh wow, Javy Báez is exactly as good as Shohei Ohtani and Fernando Tatis Jr., this is wild but definitely true, facts only:

•   In all seriousness, Báez is still on a crazy hot streak, which has his season line up to .248/.294/.494, 109 wRC+. With his glove and his baserunning, he’s been worth 2.2 WAR, which is just inside the top 10 at shortstop this year. I have trouble seeing him get $150+ million in free agency given the rest of the market and his limitations/risks at the plate, but he’ll nevertheless have plenty of suitors, and it’s pretty darn hard to say exactly where he’ll land. The Cubs might be playing things right, though, in letting it get to the market, where Báez’s value will be distilled with some more information. I mean, I say that, but I suppose that could also be why they’re playing it wrong – he’ll have other interested teams, and the ability to leave.

•   This is kinda bad:

•   Kris Bryant had a large fan club giving him love from up close at Wrigley Field yesterday:

•   Robinson Chirinos is now hitting 375/.500/1.000 (277 wRC+) through his 20 PAs with the Cubs, including yesterday’s huge day:

•   Chirinos has already been worth 0.4 WAR, the 34th highest mark among all catchers all season long. Hooray for finding a back-up on your 7th try! (Now the question is whether some catching-desperate team will want to trade for Chirinos next week, especially without the ability to add a catcher in a waiver trade in August.)

•   Justin Steele hit the 70-pitch mark at Iowa yesterday, so he’s going to be good to join the big league rotation at any point going forward. Keegan Thompson threw 42 pitches in his three innings of relief, so he’s getting up there, too. If both do end up joining the rotation, and if only Zach Davies – for example – is traded, then we might see the Cubs go with a six-man rotation in the second half for a bit (Steele, Thompson, Hendricks, Alzolay, Mills, Williams). I’m not sure what the plan is for Jake Arrieta, but outside of trying to get him a sendoff outing in there somewhere (or giving him the chance to pitch in relief in case HE wants the opportunity to show future teams what he could look like in that role).

•   There will be an Arizona Fall League this year:

•   Meanwhile, PAY MINOR LEAGUERS A REASONABLE SALARY:

•   It’s weird being a guy who follows baseball transactions so obsessively that it becomes difficult to see other sports transactions through any other lens. You try to acknowledge the structural differences in the sports, the financial differences, etc., but you still come back to, “OK, but explain it to me like it’s baseball.” The Blackhawks made a huge trade yesterday – I know enough to know that it was potentially franchise-altering – but it sure sounds like it was the kind of overpay that leaves everyone else scratching their heads. The Blackhawks acquired a guy whose future performance is doubted by many, AND he was forcing his way out, AND they gave up a ton to get him, AND they gave him a monster extension that makes him one of the highest-paid players in the league at his position. I was trying to think of a baseball comp – in terms of the type of trade and the reaction to it – and I’m coming up blank. In recent years, when a guy wants to force his way out, that mean you might wind up acquiring a crappy contract, but you’re usually (1) getting cash thrown in to make it less crappy, and (2) giving up very little in return. Think about the Cardinals and Nolan Arenado or the Yankees and Giancarlo Stanton.

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Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here. Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.

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