Report: Cubs have their new first base coach Jose Javier |
Once the 2024 MLB season came to an end and you started to see coaches getting released from Craig Counsell's staff, you knew some significant changes were coming. After all, Counsell came into a challenging situation last season where David Ross was fired in November, and a lot of the hiring options were already accounted for.
That meant that most of last season's staff was Ross' staff, and some had concerns with that from the beginning. Now that Counsell has a full offseason to prepare his team, he was finally given the resources needed to put together his own staff, which he has worked extremely hard to do. Heading into Friday, the entire Cubs staff was filled minus one position, as the first base coach was still vacant. Well, vacant no more, as Counsell has rounded out his 2025 coaching staff with the hire of Jose Javier, who will initially take over for Mike Nappoli. The 32-year-old Javier is of Dominican descent and has been a part of the New York Yankees system the past several years, including last season, when he worked with their AAA team. While there, Javier worked as the team's defensive coach, as well as working with the outfielders and, most importantly, base running. The base running trend is something worth noting as it is a trend that Counsell has been going with this offseason. If you remember, one of his first hires was former Milwaukee Brewers third base coach Quintin Berry, who also worked with outfielders and the baserunning. He played a massive role in why the Brewers were so successful on the bases last season, and the Cubs hope that translates to them. Going a bit further than that, you can see how much of an emphasis Counsell is putting on the baserunning side of things as the Cubs also poached Matt Talarico from the Yankees’ player development department. Talarico will join the Cubs organization as the Minor League offensive coordinator (whatever that means), but will also be in charge of the baserunning at the Minor League levels. In an era where the home run ball is king and most teams have forgotten how to play small ball, bringing that aspect into the game could be refreshing. There is a reason why MLB wanted to make bigger bases and limit the number of pickoff attempts at first base. They wanted more stolen base attempts to bring excitement into the game, and you started to see that more last year. No team ran more than the Brewers did last season, and that killed the Cubs several times throughout the season. It doesn't help when none of your catchers can consistently throw out runners, but things are bound to happen when you are as aggressive as the Brewers were. Sticking with the Cubs, they were also more aggressive on the bases than in the past, but not nearly at the same level as some other teams. Pete Crow-Armstrong and Nico Hoerner are the main reasons why their stolen base attempts and success rate went up, but the Cubs have more speed than they showed last season. Sometimes, being aggressive can be a curse, and the Cubs found that out firsthand by running themselves into far too many outs, with most of them coming at third or home. Anytime you give away free outs to anyone, you tend to put yourself in a difficult spot, and the Cubs did that far too often last season. Hopefully, this sudden focus on baserunning is a sign of the things to come for this offense, as they need to find a way to manufacture as many runs as possible, knowing they don't live and die by the long ball.
