Cubs Manager David Ross Speaks On Benching Javier Baez After The Shortstop Forgot How Many Outs There Were

Chicago Cubs shortstop Javier Baez is one of the most exciting players in all of baseball. He’s also one of the most maddening. On Monday night, he showed off the latter.

In the fourth inning of a one run game, Javier Baez was one first base with one out. Anthony Rizzo hit a routine fly ball to left field, and Javy took off running, clearly not knowing how many outs there were. The play resulted in an inning-ending double play.

Javy Baez has a blunder so bad that he gets benched by David Ross immediately pic.twitter.com/jHXk1rt6Gr

— MLB Errors (@mlberrors) June 22, 2021

[sportsbookaffiliates]

Right away, manager David Ross pulled Javier Baez aside in the dugout, and removed him from the game.

https://twitter.com/Cubs_Live/status/1407145058181300225?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1407145058181300225%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ffansided.com%2F2021%2F06%2F21%2Fjavier-baez-benched-why-video%2F

David Ross took the high road when talking about benching Javier Baez after the game.

“I’m not trying to set an example of Javy ever,” Ross said after the game, per Cubs.com. “That guy plays his butt off and brings it 99.9 percent of the time. And so, it’s not about setting an example for a star player that’s a big part of this team. That’s not it. It’s just, let’s get somebody in there that’s fresh and let [Báez] regroup and he’ll be better for it tomorrow. We’ll all be better for it.”

While Javier Baez didn’t necessarily agree with his manager’s decision to take him out of the game, he shared his respect for David Ross.

Javier Báez said he was surprised by David Ross’ decision, but ultimately respects the manager’s authority: “I can’t go against him. I blame it on myself. I lost count of the outs. We talked about it. We’re on the same page. I’ll be there tomorrow to help the team.”

— Patrick Mooney (@PJ_Mooney) June 22, 2021

Javier Báez said there are “no hard feelings” between him and Cubs manager David Ross: “He saw one thing. I saw another thing.” Báez also noted that backup shortstop Sergio Alcántara “was not completely ready” to enter midgame, “which is what I didn’t like.”

— Patrick Mooney (@PJ_Mooney) June 22, 2021

It seems like David Ross and Javier Baez are both ready to put the boneheaded base running blunder behind them. Something tells me we won’t see Javy forget how many outs there are ever again.

Welcome to the game outside the game! Follow us on our Sideaction Twitter handle, Instagram, and Facebook for the latest on sports and pop culture news across the web!