A RETURN TO Wrigley Field last August was supposed to be a heartwarming homecoming for Javier Baez. Chicago was where he had the best days of his career: winning a World Series and a Silver Slugger Award and making two All-Star teams.
Always a crowd favorite, Baez was known as "El Mago" -- "The Magician" -- for his flair for the dramatic. And even after being traded away in 2021 and then signing a six-year, $140 million deal with the Detroit Tigers that offseason, his return came with plenty of fanfare. There was only one problem: His game at the time wasn't capable of living up to the hype.
In between standing ovations, Baez struck out four times while batting ninth in his first game back on the North Side. The series finale two days later would be the last time he took the field in 2024. Rock bottom had arrived for a player who those around him say was "embarrassed" by his performance that weekend.
It was time to get healthy. A debilitating hip issue had zapped his athletic ability and impacted nearly every movement he made on the field.
"Honestly, all I can say is I didn't make any excuses when I struggled for three years," Baez told ESPN recently. "It's not that I wasn't working. I was pretty much playing hurt. I didn't want to get out of the lineup. I didn't want to miss time. I had good energy the whole time. I didn't have a negative attitude. It was f-- --ing frustrating for sure, but I'm the same guy every day. My teammates know that.
"I kept pushing it and pushing it and A.J. [Hinch] was the one that pulled me aside and pretty much told me we have to do something about it."
The conversation with his manager came a week before the series in Chicago, but Baez wanted the chance to play at Wrigley Field before ending his season with more than six weeks remaining. Known throughout his career as a free swinger and runner, Baez was no longer physically able to play free and loose anymore, and his numbers reflected his limitations. In his three years in Detroit, his OPS plummeted, from .671 in 2022 to .593 in 2023 to .516 last year.
"It was because of my body -- but I don't want to make any excuses."
EVEN DURING HIS best days, Baez's trouble against sliders had become a viral meme. His at-bats often ended on one knee whether the ball had been deposited in the left-field bleachers for a home run or -- far more frequently -- landed in the catcher's mitt for a strikeout. But when he stopped hitting fastballs, the Tigers knew something had to be done. Baez went from batting.307 against the pitch in 2018 to .207 by 2023. He fell to .202 against fastballs last season.
"The way I play, the way I swing, my speed, I use a 34.5-inch bat, and to keep playing I kept coming down in size," Baez said. "I went all the way down because I wasn't getting to the fastball.
"It was time to listen and to do what others who have experienced it [have done]."
Baez had hip surgery just a couple weeks after that series in Chicago. Then he began the slow process of rehabilitation and more than at any other point in his career started watching what he was putting into his body.
"The first day was really hard," Baez said. "I couldn't sleep. After that, I had to learn my body from zero."
The Tigers already looked much different than they did that last game in Chicago, and how -- and where -- Baez would fit into their future was unclear. After losing that series to the Cubs, Detroit won its next six games and began a 31-13 run to finish the season. The Tigers clinched an improbable wild-card berth -- the team's first playoff appearance in nine years -- on the final weekend of the regular season and won a playoff series against the Houston Astros, with an emerging core of young players leading the way.
Baez, who was signed to be the face of Detroit's return to baseball prominence, had to watch it all unfold from home.
"When that run happened, he watched a team mature from afar," Hinch said. "I think he noticed the team growing up and that this place could win."
Baez wanted in. But how? Hinch waited until spring training to address the 32-year-old's role in a lineup suddenly packed with young talent.
"I told him, 'I think you should be the most versatile player on our team, and you should play all over,'" Hinch recalled. "And I want to start tomorrow at third base."
Moving around the diamond wasn't completely new to Baez. When he broke into the big leagues in 2014, he played second base and shortstop for the Cubs. A year later, he added third base to his résumé. By the time he left Chicago, he had played every infield position with the exception of catcher, as well as the outfield for a game. His versatility was key for a Cubs team also loaded with position-player options.
Center field was one place Baez had never played before, but learning the position on the fly offered an opportunity when Parker Meadows went down with an arm injury. Once again, Hinch approached Baez about a position change.
"I started smiling," Baez said. "I always shagged balls out there. This was my chance to play in a game."
AFTER AGREEING TO his new role, Baez had one more thing to prove to the Tigers: that he could hit enough to stay in the lineup.
Whenever Baez was asked how he was doing at the plate during his previous years in Detroit, his response was the same: "trying to stay off that slider," he would say with a shake of his head.
An extreme version of the pitch -- now known as the "sweeper" -- has exploded in popularity over recent seasons and become Baez's kryptonite.. In every season from 2021 to 2024, his swing-and-miss percentage on sweepers was between 46% and 53%. The league average against the pitch is 28.6%.
But when the Tigers drew up their plan for Baez this season, they weren't looking for him to become something he's not against sweepers and sliders. Instead, they just wanted him to return to doing damage on pitches he could hit.
"He's dropped his hands and is little bit more closed off," Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris said. "He's been able to get to more pitches ... and pound some mistakes."
Hinch added: "I think he simplified his plan. He has condensed some of his body movements. He's a lot simpler. I see him winning more first pitches. Having the nerves and newness of a new position got his mind off of offense."
The payoff was immediate. In April, Baez hit .297 with a .337 on-base percentage. A year ago, he hit .198 in the first month of the season. His power came next. After not homering until the final day of April, he hit five in May.
The power surge even included the kind of signature game Tigers fans had been waiting to see from Baez for three years.
"I remember exactly where I was in the dugout," teammate Riley Greene would recall weeks after the thrilling May 13 win over the Boston Red Sox.
Baez had already impacted the game with a two-out, three-run home run in the sixth inning to put Detroit ahead 6-4. But the Red Sox tied the score on an eighth-inning homer, setting the stage for Baez's heroics in extra innings. With Boston leading 9-7 in the bottom of the 11th, Baez strode to the plate with two runners on.
"I look at Tork [Spencer Torkelson] and I'm like, 'Javy is going to hit a homer here,'" Greene recalled with a big smile. "'If he does, I'm going to do something crazy.' Next pitch, homer. We looked at each other. We were freaking out."
Baez's three-run blast, which electrified the Tigers dugout and all of Comerica Park, came against a slider, of all pitches. In fact, both of his home runs that night came against his long-time nemesis pitch. But instead of chasing them, he did what he was supposed to: handle a pitch he could hit. Both hung in the zone, seemingly waiting for Baez to crush them. And he did.
"I've been there before," Baez said of the dramatic moment. "But we don't enjoy it when you're young. Now, I'm having fun and being myself out there. My teammates mobbed me."
Seven months after watching from afar while his teammates stormed into October, Baez was at the center of the celebration. Even in the worst of times he remained "revered" in the Tigers clubhouse, according to Hinch. He never outwardly showed his frustration or allowed his individual struggles to bring down the rest of the team. While outsiders might misinterpret his body language at times, one Tigers official called his stoic demeanor, "unflappable."
"Baseball is so hard," Torkelson said. "Sometimes people lose sight of that. Great players might struggle, but don't give up on them. People wanted to give up on Javy. A lot of people wanted to give up on me [when he was sent to the minors]. We're playing the long game here.
"You knew it was in there. Just needed to unlock it again. He's probably one of the top three most special players I've witnessed live. That moment was electric."
Said catcher Jake Rogers with a smirk: "He has such an aura or whatever the kids call it these days. He's still El Mago."
Like a decade ago, Baez is once again a contributor on a team with aspirations of playing deep into October. Performing in front of sold-out crowds -- like the Tigers did this past weekend against his former team, when the Cubs visited in a battle of first-place clubs -- has everyone energized in the Motor City. Especially their shortstop/third baseman/second baseman/center fielder.
"And I'm hitting the slider better," Baez said with a smile.
Well. Maybe a little.