Casey Mize was breaking down his start after grinding through six innings in the Tigers' win over the Pirates when he paused and smiled, "Today's really about Javy, you know?" There was a tower of blue and silver balloons a few feet away that greeted Baez at his locker before the game. On the night he reached a major milestone, Baez resumed his resurgence.
"We love Javy in this clubhouse," said Mize. "We always have. Today’s a special day for him: 10 years of service, two homers, star of the game. He’s a superstar."
It's hard to imagine a better comeback than the one Baez is scripting in his fourth season as a Tiger. Halfway through a $140 million contract, Baez was thought to be damaged beyond repair. He was rumored to be irredeemable. The Tigers hoped hip surgery would get him right. They were not wrong. Baez was a superstar in Chicago. He might be an All-Star again in Detroit.
The latest twist in this stunning story came Tuesday night. After his two-homer game against the Red Sox a month ago, Baez fell into a slump that looked eerily similar to his first three seasons here. A lot of empty at-bats, ending in unsightly swings. A lot of 0-fers in the box score. A lot of angst, at least on the outside, that his charmed start to the season was a mirage, that Baez was relapsing into the player that most of Detroit wanted exiled.
Then he smacked a couple hits in a win over the Orioles. Then he homered and doubled in a win over the Reds. On Tuesday, Baez got a pair or hanging breaking balls and banished them both over 400 feet, the first into the Pirates' bullpen, the second into the gleeful crowd in left. Hunting his first career three-homer game, he swung out of his shoes in his final at-bat with the Tigers' 7-3 win already in the bag and admitted later with a laugh, "I got too big on the last one."
"But it feels great to be here," Baez said. "It’s been a long way. In this game there’s a lot of ups and downs, and I’ve been down many times. And I never kept my head down. I kept working, and I’ll keep working 'till the last day. But honestly impressed with the way I’m still doing this. Feel blessed. My kids are big baseball fans, and I gotta do the best for them."
Both times he crossed home plate Tuesday night, Baez pointed in the stands to his wife and their two boys, ages six and four. After every game, Baez said with a father's smile, the six-year-old "tells me what I didn’t do right. He tells me that I didn’t put my leg out on my stance, and a lot of things. It's just funny the way they see the game, but the game is the same." They were waiting for him, as they are after most games, in the hallway outside Detroit's clubhouse.
"Right when I walk out of that door," said Baez, "they’re going to ask me if we’re going to hit BP tonight. They’re going to give me a big hug because they know the 10 years. They’re really happy for me."
10 years ago, Baez was a 22-year-old breaking in with the Cubs. He quickly grew into one of the most dazzling players in baseball, and eventually an NLCS MVP and a World Series champ. He'll forever be a legend in Chicago, evidenced by the cheers he still draws at Wrigley, and by the scores of visiting fans who wore his old jersey to Comerica Park when the Cubs were in town earlier this month.
He's mostly been a pariah in Detroit. He was persona non grata after last season when pain and stiffness in his hip and lower back exacerbated his sudden decline. Baez has always been a big swinger. He relies on flexibility to load and transfer his weight. The injury sapped him of whatever power he had left. He hit .184 last year. Out of 324 big-leaguers with at least 250 plate appearances, he was second to last with a .516 OPS.
The season came to a merciful end for Baez in August. Around the same time, the Tigers roared into the playoffs. They looked better off without him. A year later, they have the best record in the majors partly because of him. He's first on the team among position players in bWAR, fourth in fWAR. He's especially valuable precisely because he wasn't supposed to be. The Tigers' sunk cost has become one of their top assets.
"I was just wondering if I was going to be able to trust my swing and physically feel good (this year)," Baez said. "It was a long process after the surgery, but everything went so good that I really got my trust back in my hip and I can lean back much better. I don’t really worry right now about the injury that I had."
Baez is hitting .289 with a .798 OPS while playing all over the field for Detroit. After the first phase of All-Star Game voting, he was fifth among American League outfielders, with the top six moving on to phase two. He's played mostly at shortstop since Parker Meadows returned to center, and he flashed the leather Tuesday night with one of his signature tags at second base to cut down a base-stealer. (He also committed a throwing error on a potential double-play ball in the second).
Baez hasn't been to the All-Star Game since 2019. Asked about the possibility of returning, he grinned and said, "Usually when I do good it’s in the second half, so I'm impressed that I’m doing pretty good right now. And if I get in the All-Star Game, I’m honestly going to be happy. If not, I’m going to get my rest for the second half."
In the meantime, Baez is making a run at a more singular honor: Comeback Player of the Year, which has been awarded to one player in each league since 2005. He'll face stiff competition in the AL from the likes of Jacob DeGrom and Mike Trout -- and perhaps even teammates Mize and Spencer Torkelson -- but he's building quite the case. It's an award that A.J. Hinch admits he hasn't "paid a ton of attention to over the years."
"I will pay close attention to it this year, just because of where he’s at right now and how he’s responded to this," said Hinch. "I don’t remember anybody in my time at any of my stops who has been able to be humble enough to move positions, or move in the batting order, or not play, or bounce back from injury. ... We have arguably one of the best stories in baseball in him being Javy Baez again and knocking on the door of the All-Star Game, potentially the Comeback Player of the Year. He’s playing second, short, center.
"I don't know that there’s that many stories over the last couple decades that represent so much of a roller-coaster ride and the feel-good that’s coming out it."
For Baez, the underlying numbers at the plate remain suspicious, which is why his recent slide warranted concern. He's still a candidate for regression, with a low rate of hard contact and an irregularly high batting average on balls in play. But if you take him at his word, his best is yet to come. He wasn't sure what to do with all the balloons after Tuesday's game, but he wasn't bringing them home just to watch them wither. He left them in the clubhouse. Not every bubble has to burst.
After last season, it wasn't clear if Baez would even reach 10 years of MLB service time. His career was fading fast. Turns out, there's still plenty of helium in Javy's tank.