Outside the walls of Comerica Park, it's spoken as fact: Javy Baez is doing more this season than the Tigers could have possibly expected. Inside of them, "that's not how we think," A.J. Hinch said Monday night after Baez collected three more hits in the Tigers' rout of the Red Sox.
"We don’t spend time putting expectations on his play. Go be Javy Baez and contribute to a win any way you can. When he does that, more good things come out of it because I just think he’s out there playing and not trying to perform," Hinch said. "He’s taking good pitches early in counts, getting into better counts, he’s bouncing back from bad at-bats in a good way, he’s playing an incredible center field. And he’s upbeat in doing his work every day. Come to work tomorrow, do the same thing and you can help us win."
On Tuesday, that's what Baez did. He came to work as Detroit's starting center fielder, where for the last three weeks the former Gold Glove shortstop has stabilized the top team in the American League. He walked in his first at-bat, scampered to third on a single and trotted home with Detroit's second run of the game when Red Sox catcher Carlos Narvaez fired a snap throw down the line that wound up in left field.
In two of his next three at-bats, he struck out on breaking balls in the dirt. The Baez experience is as dizzying as it can be dazzling. In between, Baez came to the plate with two on and two out in the sixth and the Tigers trailing by a run. He got a 1-0 slider that hung in the middle of the zone and hammered it over the bullpen into the seats in left. The fans roared in approval. They'd seen nothing yet.
With two on in the bottom of the 11th and the Tigers on the brink of defeat in a back-and-forth game, here came Baez again, and here came another slider. Baez said he was looking for it. And there it went again, gone as soon as it left his bat. Baez raised both arms and did "The Manny" Ramirez, he said with a smile, and then skipped around the bases. His teammates spilled out of the dugout and mobbed him at home in a scene reminiscent of Baez's first game as a Tiger when he walked off the White Sox on Opening Day. That was three very long years ago.
The big blows gave Baez 23 RBI since he took over as Detroit's center fielder on April 21, the most in the AL. He's hitting .365 over that stretch with a 1.086 OPS. He's also contributed four defensive runs saved at a position he'd only dreamed of playing in the majors until this season. The underlying numbers remain suspect on offense, but the recent power boost is real. And at least part of Baez's recovery can be attributed to hip surgery last September that has restored his flexibility at the plate.
"Honestly, I’m grateful to feel like this," Baez said after his first multi-homer game with the Tigers. "Last year was a hard decision to get my surgery. Just to be feeling almost 100 percent and doing what I can do -- and I’ve done it before -- like swinging at the sliders out there and making contact, I’m just happy I feel good."
The surgery, said Baez, has "a lot" to do with the resurgence of his swing. Tigers president Scott Harris said this offseason while professing faith in the team's highest-paid player that Baez struggled to rotate last season because of the stiffness in his hips and back. Baez said Tuesday that "more than the rotation, it was transferring my weight, like loading and trying to go forward, that was the thing that wasn’t letting me swing." He's still doing the daily exercises with team trainers that he did during rehab.
And "I’m still working on it," he said, "getting more comfort and trying to see the ball."
No could have seen this. Baez became one of the worst players in the bigs over his first three seasons with the Tigers, who wound up with one of the worst contracts in the sport. Now he's the most valuable player on their team, all while playing a new position in year 12 of his career. Actually, Baez will tell you that it's his old position, that "I’ve been trying to play center field all my career," and that he only ever moved to second base in ninth grade and later to shortstop -- despite originally being scared of ground balls, he laughed -- because scouts told him it would boost his draft stock.
When the Tigers lost Parker Meadows, Matt Vierling and Wenceel Perez to injuries this spring, center field was supposed to be a weakness. That's exactly what it was to start the season when they tried a different shortstop at the position in Ryan Kreidler. Baez has turned it into a strength, gliding after fly balls, chasing down line drives and making rather difficult catches look easy.
"I knew I was going to be really good at it, because that’s my natural position when I was a kid. And now that I’m playing it, I’m like, I told you! I could play!" Baez grinned. "I can track the ball pretty good, so just let them hit it out there. I will catch it."
Baez signed a six-year, $140 million deal with Hinch and the Tigers ahead of the 2022 season to help turn them back into a winner, then spent three years as a main culprit in their continued losing. It wasn't until his season ended last August that they took off on a historic run to the playoffs, which is part of why he said the decision to get surgery was so excruciating: "For me, it really sucked watching from the outside. I wanted to play the second half and in the playoffs."
While they won without him, the Tigers welcomed Baez back with open arms this spring. He never sulked. In fact, he showed up to camp and told Hinch he would do whatever was needed to help the team win, even if it meant playing catcher. He has played shortstop, third base and center this year, a baseball player down to the bone. The Tigers are 28-15, tied with the Mets for the best record in the majors.
Hinch has always backed Baez, even during his lowest of lows. Only once has he benched him, for a lackadaisical play two years ago in Toronto. Baez, 32, never let his struggles sap his joy for the game. He didn't lash out, or put up walls. He didn't turn on his teammates. He even understood the boos from the fans. These aren't always givens for a player of Baez's stature, which is why Hinch found himself fighting back emotions Tuesday night. A manager who always has an explanation struggled to describe how it felt watching Baez get rewarded.
"It’s hard to put into words, because it matters so much to me that it matters to him," said Hinch. "He is a shining example of what we’re trying to do here, which is be available to do anything and everything you can for a team to win. And that’s easy to stand in front of a group and say. It’s easy to get young guys to be hungry and thirsty to be in the big leagues. But this dude’s got a Gold Glove, this guy’s been a World Champion, he has been the center focus of a team before and he’s like, 'Sure, I’ll do it.' That is priceless."
They used to curse his name around here. The fans were chanting it up and down the concourse and into the streets Tuesday night, "Ja-vy! Ja-vy!" Hinch smiled. Baez was playing sporadically in the infield at the start of the season, and "now every day we're wearing him out. And he's all-in. He’s an incredible human who's doing his part, and he should get all the praise for how he's gone about it in his time here."
After a superhuman night, Baez stood in front of his locker to meet the media and made fun of himself for wearing "Jesus sandals." Jack Flaherty laughed at the neighboring stall and said, "So he can walk on water." Javy Baez, El Mago, is back from the dead.