They are a study in contrasts.
Ben Zobrist, three inches taller and 11 years his teammate’s senior, is soft-spoken and earnest, carrying with him the accreted wear and wisdom of a decade’s big league experience.
Javier Baez, all of 24 years old and just now beginning to establish himself on the game’s biggest stage, is a human maelstrom: all winks, charm, violence and grace. Together, they’ll log most of Chicago’s innings at second base in 2017.
At 34, Zobrist's most limber days are behind him, but what he lacks in pure athleticism he more than makes up for in a particular brand of professionalism.