The Javier Báez experience has been excruciating & exciting, just like the Tigers’ season

Javier Báez with the Detroit Tigers in 2023. When Báez staged a remarkable and redemptive first half this season, the Tigers were the best team in baseball. (Wikipedia)

By CODY STAVENHAGEN / THE ATHLETIC

They smiled and they sighed, they danced and they hugged. They freed themselves of the tension and celebrated this ridiculous ride.

Somewhere in the middle of all that, as Javier Báez slapped the backs of his Detroit Tigers teammates and manager A.J. Hinch grabbed the brim of his cap and exhaled, Báez yelled: “I’m going back to the playoffs!”

For four years, Tigers fans have groaned at the flailing swings and shaken their heads at the ceaseless chases. They have lived with the good and bartered with the bad, cursed the contract and hollered for the highlights. The Javier Báez experience has been excruciating and exciting, strange and stupendous. You could say the same about the entire 2025 Detroit Tigers season.

In a year of ups and downs, twists and turns, no player had personified the madness quite like the $140 million shortstop who spent time as a center fielder, a bench player and — in the most important weekend of the Tigers’ season — a hero.

“He lives for these moments,” Hinch said after the Tigers clinched their playoff berth Saturday with a road win over the Boston Red Sox. “He loves these environments that are a little bit rowdy.”

How important is Báez to the Tigers?

In the 74 victories he has been a part of, Báez has hit .295 with an .810 on-base plus slugging percentage.

In 51 losses, his average is .192, and his OPS is .461.

When Báez staged a remarkable and redemptive first half, the Tigers were the best team in baseball. When his performance waned, his team staged a historic collapse and blew a 14-game lead in the American League Central.

But with the Tigers fighting for their playoff lives at Fenway Park, there was the best version of Báez, diving in the grass, sliding in the dirt, slapping a hit to the opposite field and helping the Tigers keep this oblong odyssey going a little bit longer. They captured the AL’s final wild-card spot and are facing the Cleveland Guardians, the team that overtook them in the AL Central, in the playoffs.

In the clubhouse Saturday as his team celebrated, Báez stood near a back wall, goggles atop his head, shirt soaked with Champagne. He had hip surgery and missed the Tigers’ run to the playoffs last year. He was in Florida doing rehab when his teammates partied. It was tough for him to see the Tigers winning without him.

Now on the penultimate night of the 2025 season, here Báez was, right back in the middle of it all.

“It really means a lot to me,” he said.

After his surgery last year, there was a time when it felt like no guarantee that the Tigers would bring Báez back. Although he was due $73 million over the next three years, his Tigers tenure had mostly been a grisly mess. He hit only .184 last season.

So, Hinch told Báez in spring training, if he wanted to contribute in 2025, the role might look a little different. The Tigers were constructed largely with a revolving door of parts, priding themselves on utility and matchups. Báez was their highest-paid player, but now he was being asked to take on a versatile role like nearly everyone else.

Báez’s response was straightforward. “If I stay healthy, I’ll do whatever, man,” he told reporters. “I can even catch, if you need me.”

When injuries hit the Tigers in spring training and early in the season, Báez embraced the idea of playing center field. It was something he had always dreamed of doing. He held down the position at a high level, worth plus-2 defensive runs saved in 53 games.

Báez was invigorated by the challenge, and his long-dormant bat also awakened. His batting average peaked in May at .319. The boos that fans had long poured on him turned to cheers. His jerseys again flew off the hangers. Báez is still the Tigers’ most visible brand, their most famous player. He started the All-Star Game in center field.

The second half of the season was a more trying journey. Báez played some outfield, some third base and even made nine appearances at his old home of second. He returned to shortstop as the Tigers got players such as Parker Meadows back healthy. But then Báez’s bat fell off the cliff. His chase rate rose to its old levels.

Báez walked only one time in his final 197 plate appearances of the season. In the past month, he battled an illness, fouled a ball off his face and dealt with a nasty black eye. He watched as the at-bats shifted toward Trey Sweeney, and he was recently scratched from a game with neck soreness.

But Báez was back in the lineup four days in a row to end the season. He singled twice last Thursday against the Guardians and drove in a run. He did the same thing Friday in Boston, working counts and taking pitches to the opposite field. On Sunday, he hit his first home run since Aug. 2, a three-run blast that accounted for all of Detroit’s runs in the 4-3 loss.

Báez’s time with Detroit has been plenty frustrating, but he has never been accused of not caring. The Tigers signed him nearly four years ago, hoping he could be the piece that helped end their rebuild. He came to Detroit wanting to be part of an organization’s rise.

Detroit’s final month — a stretch that featured 21 losses in 29 games — has been frustrating and agonizing for everyone involved. “It’s been hard. It’s been taxing,” Hinch said.

For all his faults, Báez has been through baseball’s wringer and knows what it takes to play and win.

“In the beginning of the season, we were taking off,” Báez said. “But we didn’t lock in with what we were doing.”

He continued: “Everything has to click. The hitting, the pitching, the defense, the base running, the mental game. I think we got away, a little bit, from that.”

But with their division lead erased and their playoff lives at stake, the Tigers won two of three, just enough to survive, just enough to get in a postseason tournament that is always filled with surprises and magic.

It took four seasons, one surgery, countless strikeouts and dozens of mesmerizing plays. Now Báez is finally headed to the playoffs as a Tiger, on the back of a journey all too fitting for his career and for this team.

“As everybody knows, we did something really crazy in the first half,” Báez said. “If we get that click to play together and play good, there’s no chance to beat us.”