Javier Baez is closing in on 200 games with the Tigers. Since signing a six-year, $140 million in Detroit, he has an OPS+ of 83, where 100 represents the average MLB player. With four years and $98 million remaining on his contract after this season, Valenti says we're watching "Miguel Cabrera 2.0, someone that no one in town wants, someone that this team will have to pay out of a morbid financial obligation."
"He is one of the worst everyday players in all of baseball, and he’s worse this year than last year. If you wanted to say, is he the worst athlete to ever sign in this town? I went down that road. I want to know how the story ends with Baez, because if you still have hope for him, I don’t know what it’s based on.
"I think this ends with what we’re watching right now with Cabrera. Baez can’t opt out. His agent will lay down in his driveway behind his car before he lets Javy opt out. Four years and $98 million beyond this. You cannot ask me to take this franchise seriously if I gotta endure two, three, four more years of morbid obligation."
Among 162 qualified MLB hitters this season, Baez ranks 160th in OPS (.583). Valenti says that by keeping the former All-Star on the roster, the Tigers are asking A.J. Hinch to manage one player short: "On nights you play Javy Baez, you get nothing. You could basically pluck anyone in this league and get more. So if we’re asking Hinch and the Tigers, in the throes of a rebuild, to play a man short over the next four years, how can I take you seriously?"
Valenti says the Tigers should release Baez and eat the rest of his contract after this season, because it's already a sunk cost. He just doesn't have faith that owner Chris Ilitch will allow it, "until I see Chris and management decide they’re going to buy someone out."
"I really feel like we’re living what this is going to be," Valenti says. "Look at the at-bats, look at the production. He’s not bringing you some Gold Glove defense. He’s going to stay here, collect a check and this franchise has yet to show me that they’re willing to do what it really would take (to move on)."