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While the current iteration of the Chicago Cubs fades into oblivion, I know that many of you are still fans of Javier Báez, Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo and others who have departed the North Side of Chicago.
So this is a weekly feature, through the end of the 2021 season, to keep you up on happenings with these players.
First of all, last week was reunion week for many of these former Cubs. The Athletics and White Sox met in Chicago, the Yankees and Red Sox in Boston and the Mets and Giants in San Francisco and here’s a tweet that shows some of these meetups (with a slight typo for “Tepera”:
Kimbrel and Tempera telling Chafin they are jealous of his new shirt on the south side, Kyle and Rizzo discussing if a hotdog is a sandwich at Yankee stadium and KB and Javy writing their name on baseball objects before the Mets play the Giants in San Fran. Have a great night! pic.twitter.com/HiBTfJyjnD
— OBVIOUS SHIRTS® (@obvious_shirts) August 18, 2021
Now, on to the player updates!
Javier Báez
Javy was placed on the injured list August 13, retroactive to August 11, with some back trouble. He was activated and played in Sunday’s Mets game at Los Angeles, where he went 2-for-4 with two runs scored.
Here’s one of those two hits, a hustle double with one of his famous swim slides [VIDEO].
Báez is hitting .205/.262/.410 (8-for-39) in 11 games for the Mets with two doubles, two home runs and 15 strikeouts.
Kris Bryant
KB had a tough week, but was still productive. In five games he was just 4-for-21 — but three of those hits were home runs. He homered twice in a 7-5 win over the Mets last Monday, and overall with the Giants he is hitting .274/.329/.507 (20-for-73) with five doubles and four home runs.
Bryant will be back at Wrigley Field with the Giants for a three-game series September 10-11-12.
Anthony Rizzo
Rizzo returned to action from the COVID-19 list last Wednesday after missing 10 games. He played in three Yankees games in the week ending Sunday and went 1-for-9 with three walks and a HBP, resulting in three RBI. Overall with New York, Rizzo is hitting .244/.365/.463 (10-for-41) with three home runs. The .828 OPS is slightly higher than the .792 OPS he posted with the Cubs.
Jon Lester
Jon started against the Brewers August 19 in Milwaukee and allowed four runs in 4⅓ innings. The Cardinals won the game anyway, 8-4. The Cardinals have two more series left against the Cubs, four at Wrigley September 24-26 and three at Busch Stadium October 1-3. Lester seems likely to face the Cubs at least once, and perhaps twice, before this season ends. He still needs three wins to reach 200 for his career.
I neglected to show you this last week, but on August 8, Lester doubled off Royals lefty Kris Bubic — the guy who nearly no-hit the Cubs on Saturday:
Kyle Schwarber
Kyle played in four games for Boston this past week and went 4-for-10 with a double. Overall for the Red Sox, Schwarber is hitting .375/.545/.563 (6-for-16) with three doubles and six walks. He has yet to play the field for the Red Sox; all six of his games there have been as the designated hitter.
I’ll have another update on these former Cubs players here next Monday.