One of the first questions Scott Harris faced with the Tigers remains unanswered a year later: What on earth do they do with Javy Baez? Maybe Jeff Greenberg can help. The club's new GM was hired by Harris, in his own words, to "push each other, challenge each other and make each other better." They both watched Baez once push the Cubs.
"Scott and I both saw what Javy can mean to an organization," Greenberg said Wednesday on 97.1 The Ticket. "We saw for a while in Chicago everything he did to help us win a World Series. He was such a huge part of all those teams, the impact he can provide on defense, at the plate, running the bases, his baseball IQ, all those things."
That's the player the Tigers' former regime thought it was getting when the club signed Baez to a six-year, $140 million contract in 2021. The new regime, led by Harris and now Greenberg, has inherited one of the worst players in the game. Baez is dead last in the majors this season in wRC+, 135th out of 135 qualified hitters. The plusses he provides at shortstop are swallowed by the Black Hole he's become at the plate.
The Tigers still owe Baez $98 million over the next four seasons. The idea that they'll eat the contract is a non-starter. Their best chance at success with Baez on the books is to surround him with talented, cost-controlled players like Riley Greene and Spencer Torkelson and to fill out the roster with smart free-agent signings like Michael Lorenzen. They'll have a $32 million credit when Miguel Cabrera's contract expires this offseason. If and how they use it will be telling.
But make no mistake: Baez remains part of the picture. While Greenberg, 38, admitted that Baez's production is "obviously not where he wants it to be and now where we want it to be, there’s an opportunity for him to play a big part in what we’re trying to do. And that’s the direction we want to go in."
Greenberg and Harris really did see Baez elevate the Cubs. In some ways, all three of them came up together. Greenberg and Harris joined the Cubs' front office under Theo Epstein in 2012, Baez debuted for the team two years later and the Cubs snapped their World Series drought two years after that. Now they're all in Detroit, two executives trying to revive a team, a former All-Star trying to revive his career.
From 2016 to 2021, Baez was one of the 25 best players in baseball by fWAR. He's been one of the 25 worst since signing in Detroit.
"He’s got a unique opportunity here," said Greenberg. "We’ve got a younger team and he’s obviously a veteran player. He’s been through this, he’s seen what success looks like at the highest level. That’s an incredible opportunity moving forward, if we can put those pieces (around him) and put him in the right spot."
Other Highlights from Greenberg's interview on 97.1 The Ticket:
On his view of the Tigers: "It's clearly a team that’s moving in the right direction with some really exciting young pieces in place. You’ve seen that progress throughout this year at the Major League level and the minor league level. That positive momentum being created throughout the organization is something we need to build on moving forward."
On his partnership with Harris: "We talked about the need to continually find ways to get better in all areas and to continue to strengthen that foundation across scouting, development, the minors, the big leagues. I think we have a unique opportunity to do that from day one, just given the history and the relationship that we have. We worked together for a while and we’re not afraid to push each other, to challenge each other, to make each other better. That’s really what this president-GM dynamic is going to look like."
On the interview process with Harris and taking the job: "It happened fairly quickly. He said when he took this job a year ago, he wanted to play out the year. He did that, so I went through the full interview process. That happened over the course of a coupe weeks and had some really healthy conversations with Scott, A.J. (Hinch), the entire group here. It was just a really productive series of conversations. I really got a sense for the direction this organization is moving in and really became comfortable with the partnership with Scott and the overall fit. It happened quickly. It wasn’t an easy decision to leave the Blackhawks, but ultimately given all of those things, this was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up."