QUEENS WINS
Baez thumbs ride to Detroit as he picks Tigers over Mets
Javier Baez is moving on.
The shortstop has agreed to a deal with the Detroit Tigers, according to multiple reports. The deal is for a reported six years and is worth $140 million with an opt-out after the second year and a clause that will allow him to place ten teams on a no-trade list each year.
Baez spent the final 47 games of his 2021 season with the Mets, who he was traded to after nearly eight years with the Chicago Cubs.
In Chicago he became a two-time All-Star, came second in MVP voting in 2018 and won a Silver Slugger and Gold Glove. He also won his first World Series with the Cubs in 2016.
His brief chapter in New York wasn’t quite as glorious. Though the decorated infielder showed off the skills that make him so enticing, his stint with the Mets was marred by a thumbs down gesture that almost completely lost him his good favor with fans in Flushing. In terms of raw onfield production, though, Baez was the Mets’ best hitter for the last two months of the season.
Baez posted 1.7 Wins Above Replacement and a 143 wRC+ while hitting a tick below .300 after coming over from the Cubs on the last day of July. The consistent production was a stark turnaround from the first portion of his season in Chicago, where Baez was putting up the worst non-2020 numbers of his career.
In joining the Tigers, Baez is signing up for his first taste of the American League. Detroit has been one of the league’s least competitive teams since getting rid of Justin Verlander, J.D. Martinez and Nick Castellanos, among other secondary departures that began the team’s extensive tanking process. With dependable pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez already on board for five years and $77 million, this winter appears to be the one where the Tigers have decided to end their hibernation and become fearsome again.
For the Mets, losing out on Baez means an end to the Baez-Francisco Lindor double play combo. Baez and Lindor are childhood friends from Puerto Rico who briefly lived their dream of playing together in the bigs, but they are also the ones who orchestrated the poorly thought-out thumbs down celebration. Despite his undeniable talent, charismatic star power and strong bond with Lindor, the Mets ultimately gave the thumbs down to a longer marriage with Baez, who also led the National League in strikeouts last year.
As their roster stands right now, the Mets would still likely be looking at Jeff McNeil as their Opening Day second baseman. McNeil has been subject to incessant trade chatter after hitting a previously inconceivable .251 last season (the lefty contact hitter had comfortably been above .300 for each of the first three years of his career) but with Baez out of the equation, he could be looking at another 400 plate appearances with the Mets, barring another acquisition.
With the current state of the roster, the Mets could also play their new pickup Eduardo Escobar at second base, keep J.D. Davis at third base and shove McNeil into an outfield/utility role, but that stands as a sort of worst-case scenario for a team that clearly has visions of grandeur dancing in their eyes. After collecting Escobar, Starling Marte, Mark Canha and Max Scherzer within days of each other, the Mets are making a concerted effort at legitimacy. From the outside, it looks great. But they are still the Mets, who are no stranger to having their best-laid plans go horribly awry.
Perhaps the $254.5 million headed to the four previously-mentioned players kept owner Steve Cohen and the Mets from meeting Baez’s asking price. But $140 million is no sweat off Cohen’s multi-billion dollar back, and the team now has a massive question mark at second base if McNeil can’t find a rhythm again. Escobar — whose natural habitat is third base — could catalyze a trade that rids the Mets of Davis, or McNeil, or both, and lands yet another new player.
There’s also the question of what to do with Robinson Cano, the 39-year-old who’s been playing winter ball in Dominican Republic in anticipation of a return to Queens. Cano missed the entire 2021 MLB season with a performance-enhancing drug suspension, and surely the Mets do not want him handling a premium, up-the-middle defensive position every day. The upcoming collective bargaining agreement — the one that will take a lockout to complete — could result in the National League adopting the designated hitter, in which case the Mets have another position to play around with.