Detroit Tigers Have One Glaring Blemish on Roster Payroll Moving Forward
There is a lot to like about the direction in which the Detroit Tigers are heading in.
Being disregarded after their moves ahead of the MLB trade deadline, they proved everyone wrong by earning the second wild card spot in the American League. The hottest team in baseball down the stretch, their great play continued in the postseason.
After sweeping the Houston Astros in the Wild Card Round, they lost a hard-fought series to the AL Central rivals, the Cleveland Guardians, in the ALDS. It went the full five, as the Tigers were eliminated on Saturday afternoon, 7-3.
With their offseason now underway, it will be interesting to see how the team operates. Ahead of schedule as their rebuild is officially over, how aggressive will they be in free agency?
Based on how their salary cap situation looks, they can be as aggressive as they want. The front office has a mostly clean slate to work with and a very young core to build around.
There is only one blemish on their payroll and it is a massive one.
What will the team do with Javier Baez? It is one of their biggest questions heading into the winter in the opinion of Bradford Doolittle of ESPN.
“As mentioned, the Tigers have one of the more clean payroll outlooks in the majors, giving them an ideal foundation from which to build now that they are exiting the end of the rebuilding tunnel. The exception to this is Baez, whose six-year, $140 million deal looks worse with each passing season. While the Tigers wouldn't want to change anything about their stretch run, the Baez question didn't gain any clarity from the fact that they played so much better after he was injured. His OPS+ progression over the past four years: 117, 91, 63, 46. He turns 32 in December and has the entire back half of that contract to go. There's no prescription being offered here because there might not be one,” the MLB expert wrote.
It isn’t an ideal situation, but Detroit may be better off just eating the money owed to Baez and moving on. Given how well the team meshed and played down the stretch without him in the lineup, it would be a bad decision to try and force him back into the mix.
If he remains on the roster, he should be used as a utility piece off the bench. As Doolittle shared, his production has plummeted in recent seasons, making him a well below-average starting player.
It would benefit the Tigers in 2025 and beyond to give as many reps to their young guys, such as postseason-starting shortstop Trey Sweeney over Baez. Maybe a reduced role with matchup-specific starts would help get him back on track.
Swapping bad contracts with another team is also a potential avenue to take.
Whatever decision the team makes, Baez cannot be relied upon as a starting player heading into the 2025 season.
Kenneth Teape is an alumnus of SUNY Old Westbury and graduated in 2013 with an Honors Degree in Media Communications with a focus on print journalism. During his time at Old Westbury, he worked for the school newspaper and several online publications, such as Knicks Now, the official website of the New York Knicks, and a self-made website with fellow students, Gotham City Sports News. Kenneth has also been a site expert at Empire Writes Back, Musket Fire, and Lake Show Life within the FanSided Network. He was a contributor to HoopsHabit, with work featured on Bleacher Report and Yardbarker. In addition to his work here, he is a reporter for both NBA Analysis Network and NFL Analysis Network, as well as a writer and editor for Packers Coverage. You can follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @teapester725, or reach him via email at teapester725@gmail.com.