June 04--MIAMI -- Since Joe Maddon took over as manager of the Chicago Cubs, there's been a potential solution to any position logjam.
The latest involves Javier Baez, who will play third base for selected games after playing shortstop and second base during the past two seasons. The latter positions currently are occupied by Starlin Castro and Addison Russell (a former shortstop).
Third base at the major league level currently is occupied by Kris Bryant, but Bryant was kept abreast of the team's recent plans for Baez to move around the infield.
"They told me he was going to move moving all over the place and not to worry about anything, and all that," Bryant said.
Bryant played left field on Tuesday but returned to third base on Wednesday night.
"No expanded role," Bryant said. "Third base is where it is, and Javy will be playing all over the place."
Meanwhile, Maddon reiterated his preference for versatility and not specialization.
"We wanted to give him this opportunity to learn the position more readily and having that be open to us in the future if we chose to do something like that," Maddon said. "There's no lock-in to anything. (Third base) probably is the one (position) he's least experienced with other than first base, so let him play there a little bit and see what it looks like and learn from there.''
Baez played some third base in the Arizona Fall League in 2012.
