Justin Dean made the first major-league hit of his career Friday, and he did it in a way the Cubs probably did not draw up when they called him up from Triple-A Iowa. The 29-year-old tripled with the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh inning and helped fuel a 16-2 win over the Blue Jays at Wrigley Field.
That is why Cubs Game Today was about more than a lopsided score. Dean had come to Chicago with a narrow job description, and Craig Counsell said he would be used in pinch-running and defensive-replacement roles. Instead, Dean gave the Cubs an immediate jolt with his first at-bat for the club after replacing Pete Crow-Armstrong in center field once Chicago had built an 11-2 lead.
For Dean, the hit landed after a long climb. He spent 10 seasons in the minors and Mexico before reaching the Cubs, and last season he appeared in 18 regular-season games with the Dodgers, getting only two at-bats. He also appeared in 13 postseason games for them without a plate appearance, a reminder that he had spent much of his career on the edge of the action rather than in the middle of it.
Dean’s own reaction fit the weight of the moment. He said, “I almost cried,” then added that he and the team kept it inside because he had been waiting a long time for the moment. He said he was happy it came “at this stadium, with this team and with these guys,” and planned to watch the video later before moving on. He also said, “Baseball is a hard game, No. 1,” and that he had been in the minor leagues for a while.
The surprise was not only that Dean hit; it was that he hit while filling a role built around speed and defense. He had been batting.238 at Iowa with eight doubles, two triples, three homers and 14 stolen bases in 56 games, the kind of line that can earn a call-up without promising a bat-first impact. Counsell said the big thing was that Dean had been playing this game for a long time, and that it is different when someone has gone through what he has gone through.
There is still a practical question for the Cubs after the feel-good debut. Matthew Boyd was in the clubhouse Friday and is nearing a return to the depleted rotation, with a rehab start set for Saturday for the High-A South Bend Cubs at Fort Wayne. Dean’s first hit may have bought him attention, but his next chance will still depend on whether Chicago needs the same limited role it said it wanted from him before the game.
