BOSTON — 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 backs with his 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 this 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 key cog in Saturday’s 2-1 playoff-clinching victory over the Boston Red Sox.
“He lives for these moments,” Hinch said. “He loves these environments that are a little bit rowdy.”
How important is Báez to the Tigers?
In 73 victories he has been a part of, Báez has hit .296 with an .815 OPS.
In 51 losses, his average is .191, and his OPS is .440.
When Báez staged a remarkable and redemptive first half, the Tigers were the best team in baseball. When his performance withered, his team staged a historic collapse and blew a 14-game American League Central lead.
But with the Tigers fighting for their playoff lives Saturday 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.
Javier Báez (28) celebrates with his teammates after the Detroit Tigers clinched a playoff berth with a 2-1 win over the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park on Saturday. (Bob DeChiara / Imagn Images)
In the clubhouse 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.
In the second inning Saturday, David Hamilton’s looping pop fly floated into left field. Báez was stationed up the middle with the lefty at the plate. There were two runners on base. The Tigers already trailed 1-0.
Hamilton’s ball seemed headed for the grass, and a run was likely to score, another moment where it felt like another game was teetering toward disaster.
But then there was Báez, coming out of nowhere, diving with full extension, covering 49 feet in three seconds, hitting the turf hard and holding on to make one of his finest plays all year.
“Javy’s ball is singlehandedly the most important play of the game,” Hinch said later.
only possible by El Mago 🪄 pic.twitter.com/D73K7MQswc
— Detroit Tigers (@tigers) September 27, 2025
In the midst of a celebration that started tame but eventually turned rowdy, Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris — once part of a front office that watched as a young Báez blossomed into stardom — popped his eyes wide.
“What a play today,” Harris said. “Oh my goodness. What a play.”
Said Báez: “As soon as I took one step, I felt like an outfielder. I felt like I was playing center.”
That play might never have come to fruition if not for the conversation in spring training, when Hinch pulled Báez aside to talk about the season. After hip surgery last year, there was a time when it felt like no guarantee 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 with a 44 wRC+ last season.
So, Hinch told Báez, 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 ordered an outfield glove and did more than play there. He held down the position at a high-end level, worth plus-2 defensive runs saved in 53 games.
Invigorated by the challenge, his long-dormant bat also awakened. He walked off the Red Sox in his two-home run game in May, when his batting average peaked at .319. The booing 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 still gets yelled at more than any player that we have, whether it’s taunts or even some cheers,” Hinch said. Báez won the fan vote and 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. The underlying metrics that had long hinted at regression proved to have merit.
Baez entered Saturday having walked only one time in his past 189 plate appearances. He has hit only one homer since July 8. 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 recently got scratched from a game with neck soreness.
But facing a run of lefties at the season’s end — bolstered by the value of his defense, baserunning and extreme baseball IQ — Báez was back in the lineup three days in a row. He singled twice Thursday against the Cleveland Guardians and drove in a run. He did the same thing Friday in Boston, working counts and taking pitches to the opposite field.
In the fifth inning Saturday, he blooped a ball to right that barely fell in for a single. He advanced to second on a Meadows walk. And then, when Jahmai Jones popped a ball into Fenway’s shallow left field, Báez wheeled toward third, got the wave from swashbuckling third-base coach Joey Cora and darted toward the plate. His sprint speed hit 29.3 feet per second, the highest it’s been all season. Báez ended up sliding in with a panache only he could pull off.
He scored the go-ahead run that proved to be all the Tigers needed.
“Every run is huge right now,” Báez said. “I don’t consider myself fast, but I know how to run the bases.”
Baez slides past the tag of Red Sox catcher Carlos Narváez to give the Tigers a 2-1 lead in the fifth inning. (Bob DeChiara / Imagn Images)
It was last October, after the Tigers had beaten the Astros in the AL Wild Card Series and before they faced the Guardians in the division series, that Báez and his family traveled back to be there. He had spent the final two months of the season in the shadows, off by himself rehabbing in Florida. Fair to wonder how his teammates might react when he walked in. What would they make of this highly paid, underperforming star coming back from the abyss?
The reaction the minute Báez walked through the door? Cheers, claps and celebration.
“He busts his ass,” Tigers ace Tarik Skubal said. “He tries hard. He works hard.”
So long misportrayed and misunderstood, Báez’s four years with Detroit have been plenty frustrating, but he’s 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. … Everything has to click. The hitting, the pitching, the defense, the baserunning, the mental game. I think we got away, a little bit, from that. This second half, we did (some things) right, but we didn’t mix them together. We were trying, but it just didn’t happen.”
But with their division lead erased and their playoff lives at stake, the Tigers have won two of three, just enough to survive, just enough to get in a postseason tournament that is always filled with surprises and magic. And Detroit (87-74) can still win the Central with a win Sunday in Boston and a Cleveland (87-74) loss at home to the Texas Rangers.
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.”
(Top photo of Javier Báez sliding in to score a run: Winslow Townson / Getty Images)
