April 28--Don't expect any radical position change when Javier Baez rejoins his Triple-A Iowa teammates soon.
President Theo Epstein said Monday night that Baez will play primarily second base and occasionally shortstop after he completes his work in extended spring training in Arizona.
"Right now the focus is on getting Javy back to game ready," Epstein said of Baez, 22, who missed nearly two weeks of work while on bereavement leave following the passing of his 21-year-old sister. "He's working hard now. He's getting a lot closer. He's going to play a lot of second base, mix in some shortstop. No outfield."
Epstein declined to speculate on how the middle infield logjam would be resolved, in the wake of Addison Russell's promotion from Iowa to play second base after playing shortstop most of his career, and Starlin Castro entrenched at shortstop. Also, recently demoted Arismendy Alcantara can play shortstop and second base.
"That's thinking too far ahead," Epstein said. "We have a lot of guys with a lot of versatility. Given that, this is the ability for all our four guys to fit on the field at the same time, if we get to a point where they're all here altogether. But that's thinking pretty far in the future. We'll make sure guys continue to have the ability to play multiple positions."
As for Baez's return to Iowa, "I think there's a good chance we're talking days with him, not weeks," Epstein said.
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