Chicago Cubs have reason to hope Javier Baez is not another false dawn

Their system contains some of the most highly coveted prospects in baseball. That is in addition to Starlin Castro, Anthony Rizzo and Arismendy Alcantara, who have already joined the senior team.

Javier Baez is one among a trio to hit three homers in their first three games in the majors. Getty Images

Please forgive Chicago Cubs fans if this all feels a bit too familiar.

The latest new dawn for a franchise that seems to specialise in them broke on Tuesday, when the Cubs called up key prospect Javier Baez from Triple-A Iowa. His three home runs in his debut series against the Colorado Rockies did little to quell the hype surrounding the Puerto Rican.

Baez, 21, is one of the crown jewels in the Cubs’ glittering array of young talent. He has excelled at every level, despite being among the youngest players in the league.

He hit .282 with 37 homers between Single-A and Double-A last season, and his .260 with 23 homers in 103 Triple-A games this season was weighed down by a slow start.

He hit the go-ahead home run against Colorado in his major-league debut on Tuesday and went three-for-four with two homers and four RBI the next day.

In doing so, Baez joined Charlie Reilly (1889) and Joe Cunningham (1954) as the only players to hit three homers in their first three games in the majors.

Even striking out four times in his Wrigley Field debut failed to dampen the excitement around a youngster who has drawn favourable comparisons to Gary Sheffield. On paper, the Cubs are loaded for bear when it comes to position players.

Their system contains some of the most highly coveted prospects in baseball – players such as Albert Almora, Jorge Soler, Kris Bryant, Addison Russell, Kyle Schwarber and Victor Caratini. That is in addition to Starlin Castro, Anthony Rizzo and Arismendy Alcantara, who have already joined the senior team.

But Cubs fans of a certain age have seen this all before. The roll call of much-hyped youngsters who ultimately amounted to little at the major-league level is as long as it is undistinguished. Ask any long-suffering Cubs fan and the names fairly roll off the tongue – Felix Pie, Hee-seop Choi, Dwight Smith, Jerome Walton, Corey Patterson, Ty Griffin, Kevin Orie and Brooks Kieschnick.

There is also the pressing matter of who will pitch for the Cubs. Their rotation is a long way removed from even a decade ago, when Kerry Wood, Mark Prior and Carlos Zambrano gave the team the luxury of three front-line starters. The cupboard is bare, meaning club president Theo Epstein may have to part with some prospects to bring in players worthy of being in a major-league rotation.

As omens go, optimists and pessimists have ample fodder. Pessimists can point to Baez thudding back down to earth after leaving hitter-friendly Colorado, as well as the team’s long list of failed new dawns.

Optimists can savour the fact that unlike Castro – who was booed after committing three errors in his Wrigley Field debut – the crowd stayed firmly behind Baez. Maybe things are turning around after all.

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