At this point, nobody's surprised when they see Javy Baez pull his "El Mago" act.
Amazing play in the field? That's old hat. Swim move slide? C'mon, that's so 2017. Lightning-quick tag? Yawn.
OK, "yawn" is a complete exaggeration because it never gets old to watch Baez's extreme athleticism. But at some point — years ago — that all had to be added to the scouting report when teams would play Baez and the Cubs, right?
So how does the 2018 NL MVP runner-up continue to force opponents into making so many mistakes on the bases?
"He has a force field around him, that's the thing," Ian Happ said. "Every time he's on the bases, he seems to get guys to make mistakes and that's because everybody knows he's such a good baserunner. Everyone knows the impact he has — they try a little harder when he's on the bases because you know he can make something like that happen and it forces guys into making mistakes."
Baez — who just celebrated the five-year anniversary of his MLB debut — has shown exactly what Happ is talking about over the last week.
There was Saturday, when he hustled out of the box on a second-inning liner down the right field line and coasted into third with a triple when Christian Yelich couldn't corral the ball perfectly off the wall. A few pitches later, Baez sprinted home when a ball squirted only a couple feet away from Milwaukee catcher Manny Pina, leading to the Cubs' first run:
It was also the Cubs' only run until the seventh inning of the tightest game of the weekend series and it only occurred because Baez singlehandedly made something happen for his team.
Then there's twice where Baez forced the opposition into making an error on a stolen-base attempt: last Friday against Milwaukee and last Wednesday in St. Louis.
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He didn't come around to score on Friday, but the Wednesday incident led to a huge insurance run for the Cubs. In a 1-0 game, Baez danced far off second base and baited Cardinals catcher Matt Wieters into throwing behind him. St. Louis second baseman Kolten Wong tried to rush and catch the short-hop in a position to try to throw out Baez at third, and instead missed Wieters' throw and Baez coasted home with some all-important eighth inning breathing room for a team that has struggled to win on the road.
"It's huge," Happ said. "He's a one-man show out there where if he's hitting or if he's on the bases, he can create a run by himself. I was hitting in St. Louis when he did that. He was on second base and I was all excited about driving him in and he got himself home without me even having to swing the bat.
"The stuff that he can do like that to jumpstart the offense and give us instant production without really having to get too many more hits — that's huge."
The Cubs offense has certainly looked better lately — Happ and Nicholas Castellanos are huge reasons why. But it's a small sample size — Happ probably won't post an OPS over 1.000 and Castellanos probably won't hit near .400 for the rest of the season.
But what Baez can do as a "one-man show" can help steal a run here and there for an inconsistent offense, especially as they embark on a crucial road trip in desperate need of better play away from Wrigley Field.
"He's done that for years and it does provide a lift," Joe Maddon said. "Today's game is frowning upon that Three-Musketeerism on the bases — nobody wants to make outs on the bases and there's not a lot of speed in the game per team, so that's part of what's missing. I agree. It'd be nice to have more people in your group that's capable of doing things like that."
Baez only has 9 stolen bases on the season, but he's been plagued by a right heel injury since late May and he's way too valuable to the Cubs to risk injury by running on a consistent basis. However, he doesn't always need to steal a base to help the Cubs with his "force field" approach to running the bases.
"I know when I get on base, the pitcher and catcher and pretty much the whole team is paying attention to what I'm gonna do or what I'm doing," Baez said. "I just keep my head up and see where the ball is gonna go and see what the plan we got against a pitcher. I always try to advance on base or more if I can."