Detroit — The seeds of the Tigers’ infatuation with Javier Báez — well, for general manager Al Avila, anyway — may have begun back in 2018. Avila, as the club was entering the full tear-down phase of the rebuild, was with the team for a two-game series at Wrigley Field that August.
He became animated as he watched Báez, then 25 and in his first of two All-Star seasons, almost single-handedly wreck his baseball team.
“He was running the bases, making plays all over the field, just killing us,” Avila said. “I said to myself, ‘Damn, we have to get this guy out of the game.’ He was making the difference on his own and I was beside myself. Like, can’t we get a guy like that?”
Well, it took four years and 332 losses, but he got him.
The Tigers on Wednesday introduced their new shortstop, officially stamping Báez’s six-year, $140 million contract that was agreed to early Tuesday morning.
“I feel so blessed now,” Avila said. “The passion he plays with, the defense, and he’s a very good leader. He’s a quiet leader. He leads by example on the field and in the clubhouse. He’s the right guy, the right fit.”
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With the signing of Báez, a Gold Glove winner in 2020 who has accumulated the most defensive runs saved in baseball since 2016, Avila also made good on his sales pitch to veteran left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez, whom the Tigers signed last week (five years, $77 million).
“When we signed Rodriguez, he said, ‘I want defense around me. You guys going to get some defense?’” Avila said. “I said, ‘Trust me, we’re going to get a defensive shortstop for you.’”
It was a bountiful birthday for Báez, who turned 29 on Wednesday. Not only did he get a six-year deal that will pay him an average of $28 million a year, with an opt-out after the second year if he chooses, but he also gets to play with one of his heroes, Miguel Cabrera.
“I’ve been seeing this team from the other side and the way they play,” Báez said. “They have a lot of young players and they have Miggy. Obviously, everyone wants to learn something from Miggy. That was one of the biggest things.
“Every time I go somewhere, I learn and I pick stuff up that helps me. I’m pretty sure Miggy is a guy who helps everyone around him.”
The constant knock against Báez — who slugged 31 home runs, knocked in 87 runs and posted a 116 wRC-plus with the Cubs and Mets last season — is his high-strikeout (36.3% last season), low-walk (5.1%), high-chase (46.6%) profile.
You might think it’s too late for him to change his approach. Not necessarily. Finishing the season with the Mets, playing in a more spacious home park (not unlike Comerica Park) and on a team that preached productive and selfless at-bats, he lowered his strikeout rate (from 36.3% with the Cubs to 28.5%) and raised his walk rate (from 4% to 7%).
“I was just more confident that the players had my back,” Báez said. “That whole lineup had the same plan. If you don’t get it done, the next guy would get it done for me. We were all on the same page. That really helped me. I appreciated that team approach. It helped me be a little more patient.”
And now he plans to spend time with a master — Cabrera.
“I want to have that same confidence to have the approach that Miggy has,” said Báez, meaning Cabrera’s ability to react to pitches and hit the ball to all fields. “That’s going to take me to the next level. I don’t think I’ve had my best season yet and I’m looking to have a great season.
“I want to talk to Miggy and learn about the swing and be able to keep it the same the rest of my career. I have been working on seeing the ball better, chasing less pitches.”
The deal for Báez came down in the wee hours Tuesday morning. Tigers CEO and chairman Christopher Ilitch signed off on it just after midnight.
“This is a turning point for the Tigers,” Ilitch said. “Signing a player like Javy sends a message to the baseball world that the Tigers are here to compete. We want to be highly competitive and we want to be successful. It’s very exciting to me.
“And I hope it’s exciting for Tigers fans, as well.”
After Ilitch signed off on it, Avila then worked out the nuts and bolts with Báez’s agent and at 2:30 a.m., he called manager A.J. Hinch, who was in Houston.
“He kept me on the phone for an hour and a half,” Avila said. “He was so excited he couldn’t get off the phone. He kept me on the phone until 4 a.m., I am not exaggerating.”
Hinch laughed. But who could blame him for being fired up. The Tigers have posted the fewest defensive runs saved in Major League Baseball since 2016 (minus-352). While Báez was saving 16 runs in 100 games at shortstop last year (he played second base in New York), the Tigers were a minus-16 from the shortstop position.
So, yes, he was fired up.
“Shortstop is a position where stability matters,” Hinch said. “If you think about the double plays we didn’t make last year, the different lineups that had to be constructed with various people at that position,” he said. “It was a point of emphasis for us to take care of our pitchers. How do we do that? We added a catcher and we’ve added a Gold Glove, All-Star caliber shortstop who makes a great impact in all facets of the game.”
The defense, the power bat, the run production, the aggressive base running, the flair — these were all well-known qualities to Hinch. What he wasn’t as aware of until he sat down with Báez was the fire that burns inside of him.
“To kind of take a page out of Nick Saban’s book, Javy’s competitive character is remarkable,” Hinch said. “He has a short memory and all he cares about is winning today. We’ve talked about bringing winners here who want to win today’s game. And I think Javy, the way his career has gone, the impact he has had, the ups and downs and everywhere in between — he’s come out of it a super tough kid who knows how to win.
“He posts and shows up every day to beat you. If you aren’t wearing the Old English D and sitting in our dugout, he’s against you. To me, the competitive character that he brings is something we’ve been trying to build here this last year.”
The narrative since the end of the season was the Tigers were the No. 1 suitor for free-agent shortstop Carlos Correa. That may have been true at one point, but Avila and Hinch both said they locked on to Báez very early in the process. And neither expressed any regrets.
“When I called Javy up (Tuesday morning), it was really late,” Hinch said. “But I wanted him to know how excited I was that I will be writing his name in the lineup every day at shortstop and that he was going to help us win. He’s a perfect fit for us.”
The signing of Báez and Rodriguez to long-term deals ($214 million worth), trading for Barnhart, extending Jonathan Schoop last year, Cabrera with two years left on his deal, possibly extending Jeimer Candelario beyond 2022, with a young core of starting pitchers and the likelihood of top prospects Riley Greene and Spencer Torkelson making an impact next season — a foundation for the next playoff competitive team in Detroit has started to take shape.
“What I bring, really, is energy,” Báez said. “We’re going to have a lot of new fans come watch me play. I’ve got a lot of family that follows me everywhere (laughs). So we’re going to have magic. We’re going to make some magic on the field.”
The don’t call him El Mago for nothing.
chris.mccosky@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @cmccosky