Javy Baez returns to Wrigley this week. Is it his last hurrah as a starter for Tigers?
During his time with the Cubs, Javy Baez was a highlight machine, all the way to the final day.
In Baez' second-to-last game at Wrigley Field, before he was traded to the Mets for Pete Crow-Armstrong, he delivered a pinch-hit, walk-off RBI. On the mound was his Cincinnati Reds rival, Amir Garrett. After hitting a deep fly ball to center field, Baez walked to first base, yelling at Garrett with every step, and making a sweeping motion with his bat, a reference to something that happened earlier between the teams.
The ending perfectly captured Baez' personality and playing style. No one would have guessed Baez’ next visit to Wrigley would happen just as he's being replaced at shortstop by a touted prospect from Eastern Illinois University.
That's not a typo. On Friday, the Detroit Tigers called up Trey Sweeney from Triple A Toledo and he started at shortstop for two of the three games against the Yankees over the weekend.
Tigers manager A.J. Hinch has told reporters he plans to start Baez against the Cubs. But the numbers don't lie. Baez is currently hitting a career-low .185.
What the heck happened here? Not only with Baez, but Kris Bryant has also been a huge disappointment since leaving the Cubs, while Anthony Rizzo has come nowhere near his best years with the Cubs from 2014-19.
Rizzo is slated to make his return to Wrigley Field with the Yankees on Sept. 6. But he's still recovering from a broken arm suffered on June 16. Rizzo is reportedly hitting in the cage and taking grounders, but has not yet been cleared for a rehab assignment.
The return of Baez and Rizzo have been delayed by the schedule. It's been more than three years since the three World Series heroes were moved at the trade deadline in 2021. Bryant has been back to Wrigley four times with the Giants and Rockies, though he didn't play in 2022 due to an injury. Bryant's OPS is currently a career-low .623.
There are several ways to explain the post-Cubs collapse. One is simply how it's rare for any player to produce stellar, consistent numbers for more than a few years. Baseball history is loaded with flash-in-the-pans, who are all but forgotten today. Maybe they get pitched differently, lose their mechanics or can't react as quickly.
In the case of Baez, a popular theory is he missed the energy and atmosphere of Wrigley Field. Some employees of the Cubs have raised this issue privately and Baez mentioned it himself in 2020 when no fans were allowed in the building. Baez thrives on being fired up, playing full speed. It's the style that created both clutch home runs and swinging strikes on pitches a foot outside.
At one point, Baez took a mental reset day, sat next to Tigers legend Miguel Cabrera in the dugout and tried to figure out what was wrong. He admitted having trouble identifying pitches.
“Once we can get his mentality to shift, to stick with his plan, it can click for him,” Hinch said at the time. “When he gets hot, he gets white-hot. That's obviously something we're looking for.”
The reset happened in July, 2023 — more than a year ago — and things have only gotten worse.
Baez still has three years and $73 million left on his contract. The Tigers' 61-64 record doesn't match expectations for a team with plenty of young talent. So on Friday, Detroit called up both Sweeney and the team's No. 5-ranked prospect Jace Jung.
“The faster we get these guys acclimated to being big leaguers, the better they'll be,” Hinch told reporters Friday. “We've seen that with every young player.”
Sweeney is a Louisville native who spent three years in college at Eastern Illinois and was a first-round pick of the Yankees in 2021. The Tigers got him from the Dodgers a few weeks ago in a trade for pitcher Jack Flaherty.
The Wrigley Field crowd will be appreciative Tuesday, but this series could turn out to be Baez' last hurrah.