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Tuesday, November 30, 2021
MLB Network/Fox Sports reporter and Free Press alum Jon Paul Morosi reported early Tuesday morning that the Tigers are close to signing shortstop Javier Baez to a six-year deal.
Baez, who will turn 29 on Wednesday, is a two-time All-Star and former Gold Glove winner who hit .265 with 31 home runs and 87 RBIs in 138 games between the Chicago Cubs and New York Mets last season. He did, though, lead the National League with 184 strikeouts over 502 at-bats. He stole 18 bases and walked 28 times, registering a .319 on-base percentage and a .494 slugging percentage (.813 on-base plus slugging).
For his career, the right-handed-hitting Baez is a .264 hitter with a .783 OPS and a 23.4 WAR. His career fielding percentage is .965 at shortstop. He made $11.6 million last season.
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1. Moses Taylor loves a good maim Posted: November 30, 2021 at 10:03 AM (#6055315)And also pissed/disappointed the Cubs couldn't close this sort of deal with him last year - I haven't seen anything about the Cubs talking to him this offseason so if they didn't, also disappointed in that.
Both are far preferable to the Seager deal.
The Cubs have reportedly signed Yan Gomes!
In what I'm sure is unrelated news, Willson Contreras is shopping for new luggage.
LA Dodgers: -2 (Hurrah!)
Toronto: -1
Rockies: -1
Oakland: -1
SF: -1
Rangers: +3
Mets: +1 (Max and Marte added and Baez subtracted)
Seattle: +1
Tigers: +1
Just taking 2 from one of the silly, uber teams (LA) and adding 3 to 1 of the worst teams (Rangers) helps the competitive balance.
That's not a bad back-up catcher signing. If, on the other hand, it's a precursor to Willson departing, or it's the biggest free agent signing of the off-season, then it's a very bad signing.
And $35million. You pay less, and get out younger with Javy. Plus Javy will be at SS, while Semien likely at 2b.
$13mil for 2 years is a lot for a backup catcher.
Ricketts should be paying a lot for at least something.
The tags, the slides, the off platform throws, the majestic home runs... I'll accept a few golden sombreros for all of that.
And this seems a pretty reasonable deal. It will be interesting to see what Story gets.
But I definitely feel like a parent protecting his flawed child from others today. I'm in Michigan, so a lot of my Tiger fans friends are freaking out about all the strikeouts and the relatively low OBP. I feel like to look at Javy from a strictly offensive perspective misses a huge part of his value as a player.
Right, this is the typical error of focusing on what a player can't do and ignoring or diminishing their other obvious abilities.
This.
If I'm a Tiger fan?
Enjoy the ride. Javy is one of the most fun players in the world to watch, and when he's going well - he's capable of carrying a (good) team (in the baseball sense/extent that's possible). His flaws mean that when he's not -- it's ugh city... he'll compile golden sombreros and you've got zero faith he'll hack within the same zipcode of a slider in a key PA.
But - man... he'll just do things all over the field; in the field, on the bases, at the plate, that just makes your jaw drop and he's an effervescent joy. I'm sure Mets fans might disagree, given a cold snap coincided with his arrival in Queens and that sort of spoiled the subsequent hot streak...
He's a really fun player to root for and one of the guys with a good chance of giving you something amazing to watch. He's a peak moments guy, not a season-long compiler - but so long as he's not expected to single-handed be the difference between 80 and 100 wins? Just enjoy the ride.
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