With the Javier Báez signing, the Tigers show they’re not completely serious yet
On Tuesday morning, the Detroit Tigers signed free-agent shortstop, Javier Báez for 6 years at $140 million. If you’re a casual fan, you think this signing is a big deal for the future of the Tigers. After all, Báez is a name in the MLB. Especially for his contributions to the 2016 Chicago Cubs team that broke the “curse” of 108 years since their last World Series victory.
But truth be told, Báez has been on the decline. Even though he’s only 29, he has been slowly getting worse. There’s a reason why the Cubs and the Mets both let him go.
Báez has a career batting average of .264. With an OBP of only .307. His OPS is .783. He’s also a strikeout machine. He had 184 strikeouts last season, which led the National League and was also his career-high. The Tigers were also third-highest strikeouts in the majors last season, so adding a guy like Báez is the exact opposite of what they want.
Tigers owner, Chris Ilitch is the one who’s in charge of how much Detroit is going to spend since there’s no true salary cap in the MLB. Chris inherited the team from his father, Mike Ilitch, who passed away in 2017. He clearly isn’t all-in with this team like his father was. Ilitch has a window right now where his great farm talent is coming up and not making any real money. He also has Miguel Cabrera’s contract coming off the books in two years.
Yet, Chris Ilitch did not want to spend $300 million for a single player. Instead, he went out and got a super mediocre player who has been on the slow decline.
Ilitch had the perfect fit with Carlos Correa. Correa and Tigers manager A.J. Hinch were together in Houston when the Astros won the World Series in 2017. Hinch and Correa were even spotted having breakfast that turned into lunch a couple of weeks ago — sparking a lot of rumors that Correa was a lock to go to Detroit.
Ilitch kept making it known by leaks to the media that he wasn’t going to pay a player to the caliber of a Carlos Correa. It’s a slap in the face to the fans who have been patient through this long, grueling rebuild.
Signing Correa for $300 million would have still put Detroit’s overall salary cap below average. It’s not like they already have a salary cap like the Dodgers or Yankees. Instead, it’s a very low salary cap as of now and he only bumped it up with the Báez signing.
What does it come down to? Greed. Chris Ilitch seemingly doesn’t want to take away all the free money he’s had flowing into his pocket. He thinks he can trick the fans into believing that he’s serious because he signed Javier Báez. In reality, Báez is less than half the player Correa is.
It would be a baseball nerd-fest to break down every stat, but Baseball-Reference.com does a phenomenal job of breaking down every category to see why Báez isn’t someone to get overly excited about.
Báez is flashy. He can make decent plays at shortstop. He can hit home runs and drive in runs. He just has a lot of negatives attached to him. The other negative thing attached to Báez is the whole “thumbs down” routine he did to Mets fans in August.
The Mets were losing a lot, and the newly acquired Báez wasn’t playing so hot. He was striking out a lot, so New York fans did what New York fans do: they booed their home team and their home players. So, when Báez finally got a big hit, he decided to boo the fans back. It just wasn’t a good look. The fans pay their hard-earned money to see their team play. If they don’t like what they see on the field, they have a right to boo. Not to mention, Báez had just recently arrived in New York. It just wasn’t his place, not that it was anyone’s place to do that.
It seems that Chris Ilitch and GM Al Avila are just dipping their toe in the water — they’re too scared to jump all the way in and sign a player like Carlos Correa. They’ve made two signings this offseason: Javier Báez and Eduardo Rodríguez. Both of them have an opt-out after the second year of the deal. Meaning if Rodríguez and Báez play well, they will opt out and become free agents and look for a new deal worth more money. So it’s really not the biggest commitment from Avila and Ilitch.
The other issue is that A.J. Hinch can opt out of his contract at the end of this upcoming season. Despite the Astros cheating scandal attached to him — he is still one of the best managers in the entire league. He proved that last year when he took a Tigers team with very little talent on it to a 77–85 record. The Vegas odds had them losing 100 games yet again that season.
A.J. Hinch really changed the culture in Detroit.
If Hinch doesn’t think that Avila and Ilitch are serious about winning by their lack of serious spending, I could totally see him opting out if he has private conversations with other organizations that aren’t afraid to spend the big bucks.
Analytically speaking, Báez was the worst shortstop available. Carlos Correa, Trevor Story, Corey Seager, and Marcus Semien all had better numbers than Báez did. The Tigers went out and got the worst shortstop on the market, just to be able to tell their fans that they “got a guy”.
The above tweet shows the differences between Javier Báez and Jonathan Schoop, who is already signed to the Tigers and is making $7.5 million a year and has similar numbers to Báez. So why did the Tigers sign Báez to so much money? Perhaps it’s to give the illusion that Chris Ilitch and Al Avila are doing something to better this team. In reality, Báez just isn’t a game changer.
A lot will be riding on this upcoming season. Maybe Javier Báez can find his own with the help of A.J. Hinch in Detroit and really become a leader that these young players coming up can get behind. Perhaps it’s the role he never got to have that he can form into. That’s the beauty of baseball — you just never know.
