CHICAGO -- The World Series ring that Justin Dean earned with the Dodgers last year had nearly reached his hands, but then the Cubs came calling. Dean left Triple-A Iowa and was off to Wrigley Field, where he joined the North Siders on Friday morning to fill a role on manager Craig Counsell’s bench.
The ring will be in Chicago with him soon, too.
“It’s crazy. It’s on the way,” Dean said with a smile. “It just got to Iowa, actually, as I left. Just crazy timing.”
Dean knows a little something about waiting.
In the seventh inning of the Cubs’ 16-2 win over the Blue Jays on Friday, Dean raced around first base, lost his helmet before hitting second and was into third standing up with a three-run triple that had the Wrigley Field crowd rocking. He knew the magnitude of the moment, but it took a minute for everyone in the building to catch up.
That was Dean’s first career hit in the Major Leagues. After 745 games and more than 3,000 plate appearances over eight years in the Minor Leagues, plus a stint as a baserunning and defense specialist for the Dodgers last year, the 29-year-old outfielder had finally notched that milestone.
“Baseball’s a hard game,” Dean said. “I was in the Minor Leagues for a while or two. Not knowing when your opportunity is going to come -- if it’s going to come -- you’re just trying to stay ready, and try to be realistic at the same time, you know? And then sticking with it and getting the turnaround that’s happened, it’s great.”
The fans inside the Friendly Confines roared and offered a standing ovation when the feat appeared on the ballpark’s videoboards.
“It was almost a little surprising seeing it was his first hit,” Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong said, “because I knew he got a World Series under his belt. Pretty cool perspective he’s probably got, having gone all the way in the playoffs and been around players of a caliber like that. One thing I do know about him is that he works and works and works.”
Dean was a 17th-round pick by the Braves during the 2018 Draft, met Crow-Armstrong through some mutual friends during the 2020 season and they spent time training together six years ago. This past spring, Dean was in camp with the Cubs as a potential fit for the bench, but was sent to Triple-A Iowa to begin the year.
In 56 games with the I-Cubs, the 29-year-old Dean posted a .369 on-base percentage, stole 14 bases in 15 chances and manned all three outfield positions. Chicago called him up on Friday morning after deciding to option Moisés Ballesteros to Triple-A Iowa. Counsell said Dean would mostly be used as a pinch-runner.
That was the role Dean had with the Dodgers, who used him in 18 regular-season games and another 13 in the postseason. Combined, Dean went just 0-for-3 in the batter’s box in his few opportunities. Dean did find the spotlight in Game 6 of the World Series, when his decision to put his hands up in the bottom of the ninth contributed to a ground-rule double for Addison Barger, helping seal a Dodgers win.
As Friday’s game became more and more lopsided, Counsell sent Dean into center field in the seventh to give Crow-Armstrong some time off his feet. Then, with the bases loaded in the home half of the frame, Dean slashed a 1-2 sinker from submariner Tyler Rogers deep to right, where it eluded the reach of Blue Jays outfielder Jesús Sánchez.
“Once I saw it land,” Dean said, “I’m like, ‘Oh, there it is. That’s the first hit.’ And then I just focused on running, focused on getting to third. Once I kind of settled in, I almost cried. We kept it inside, though. I was just super happy. I’ve been waiting a long time for that. I’m super happy it came at this stadium with this team, with these guys.”
Asked how many times he has envisioned that moment, Dean repeated: “Countless, countless, countless.”
“I’m going to watch the video a couple times and just feel the moment,” Dean added.
After the triple, Dean looked into the Cubs’ dugout and saw his teammates going wild.
“Justin’s been playing the game for a long time,” Counsell said. “When you’ve gone through what Justin’s gone through in the game and played the game as long as he has, and you don’t have that Major League hit yet, I think that’s probably what everybody felt.”