Prospect Baez will sit out Fall League to rest

MILWAUKEE -- Cubs top prospect Javier Baez will not play in the Arizona Fall League so the shortstop can rest for the 2014 season, general manager Jed Hoyer said Thursday.

"He's emotionally and physically drained after the season," Hoyer said. "We have no problem with [him missing the AFL]."

Baez was one of four Cubs prospects headed to the Arizona Fall League, and he would have joined this year's first-round pick Kris Bryant, outfielder Albert Almora -- the Cubs' No. 1 selection in 2012 -- and Cuban outfielder Jorge Soler on the Mesa Solar Sox.

Almora and Soler both missed time in the Minor Leagues this year because of injury, while Baez started at Class A Daytona and moved up to Double-A Tennessee. The 20-year-old shortstop was named the Cubs' Minor League Player of the Year after batting .282 with 37 home runs and 111 RBIs in 130 games in his second pro season. He will be honored on Saturday at Wrigley Field along with Kyle Hendricks, who was named Minor League Pitcher of the Year.

"The last thing we want him to do is go there and risk injury," Hoyer said. "He had a full season, he had a great season, and I feel we'll see him in Arizona working out."

The Cubs may add another player to the Mesa Solar Sox roster.

Chicago also announced Thursday that pitcher Arodys Vizcaino will not play in the Arizona Fall League, either. Vizcaino, acquired in July 2012 in the deal that sent Paul Maholm and Reed Johnson to the Braves, has yet to pitch for the Cubs because he has been rehabbing from Tommy John surgery. The right-hander will participate in the Cubs' instructional league, which gets underway next week in Mesa, Ariz., instead of the AFL.