Baez admits celebrity life took its toll after World Series win
Javy Baez found it easier to be a baseball player than rock star.
While answering questions from training camp, the Cubs shortstop talked about dealing with the lack of fans and lack of in-game video study last season, along with the lack of a new contract extension heading into this year.
He also reflected on the aftermath of 2016, when the Cubs won the World Series in Baez' first full season in the majors.
“My personal opinion — after we won, then in '17 we played the (World) Baseball Classic, I did the (ESPN) Body shoot,” Baez said in a Zoom call from Mesa, Ariz. “To me, I kind of mentally got away from baseball. Because all this stuff that we did, it had the fans, our people, families, seeing me in different ways. Seeing me as an actor, as a rapper, something.
“It was, 'Javy, can you do a video for this? Javy, can you do this?' I wanted to play baseball and people are not seeing me as a baseball player. I didn't get away from it, but I wasn't into baseball. I wasn't trying to get better every day. I was playing because of my talent.
“These last two years, which last year was bad for me, I was into it. I was into baseball. That's why it was so frustrating for me. Now I've got more confidence in me. I'm letting the game teach me what I can do.”
Of all the Cubs that had disappointing seasons at the plate in 2020, Baez's campaign was probably the worst. He hit .203 with 75 strikeouts in 59 games.
Cubs manager David Ross can relate to Baez having to deal with the celebrity aftermath of the World Series win. Ross was on “Saturday Night Live,” “Dancing With The Stars,” and became an ESPN analyst — all things that weren't likely to happen without playing on that Cubs team.
“I was a backup player and a terrible player and got all that fame,” Ross said. “I don't want to speak for Javy, but I can speak for myself: You're a rock star when you walk around Chicago, you've got a lot of people pulling at you in a lot of different ways. There's even a maturity level I felt like I had and it felt overwhelming at times. and I didn't have to play baseball anymore. There's definitely something to that.”
Now Baez is dealing with a different set of problems. He's trying to bounce back from a bad season, wondering if this is his last season with the Cubs, and the fan base is annoyed with the team's limited success since 2016.
Baez is definitely happy there will likely be at least some fans in the stands this summer and MLB will allow some sort of video study during the game.
“I don't want to talk about last year,” he said. “It was frustrating to me, to a lot of players. It was two months of baseball that I felt in a rush. I felt like I didn't have time to make adjustments. I'm not the guy that shows you everything I've got in the first half.
“I can have a bad half or a decent first half and then in my second half, I can make the first half disappear. I didn't have that. I was not mentally ready for what happened last year. This year we've got the video, I've got the confidence it's going to be great for me.”
It wasn't all bad news for Baez in 2020. He won a Gold Glove for the first time, so his defense didn't suffer. He's just 28, has been with the organization for 10 years and is very focused on staying with the Cubs long-term.
“Obviously, I'm willing to sit with them and listen (about a new contract),” he said. “Obviously, I want to stay here. We won here, I've been here 10 years now. We'll see what happens.
“I want to stay here, I don't want to play for another team.”
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