Boston — It felt like the baseball gods were piling on, frankly.
Tigers’ shortstop Javier Báez, already grinding through one of the worst offensive seasons of his career, found out last Saturday that his grandfather, with whom he was extremely close, had died. Logistics being what they are with trying to make dates and arrangements for a wake and funeral in Puerto Rico, Báez ended up staying with the team last week and played in five games while the details got sorted out.
Tough game to play with a heavy heart.
Báez went 2 for 14 and struck out 10 times. The only happy moment for him last week was his bunt single Thursday.
He was supposed to start on Saturday, but he felt some discomfort in his right knee and was scratched. Sunday, finally, he was on his way to Puerto Rico.
“Hopefully that will get some closure for his family on the loss that they’ve had,” manager AJ Hinch said. “And, too, maybe it will allow him some time to freshen up a little bit.”
The Tigers placed Báez on the bereavement list (three to seven days) on Sunday and recalled veteran infielder Isan Diaz from Triple-A Toledo. The Tigers claimed him off waivers from the Giants last week.
It’s been an odd journey for Diaz. The 27-year-old native of Puerto Rico who grew up and still lives in Springfield, Mass., was a second round pick of the Diamondbacks in 2014. He was traded to the Brewers before he got out of rookie ball and then in 2017 was traded to Miami in the Christian Yelich deal.
He played in parts of three seasons for the Marlins, hitting a home run off Jacob deGrom in his big-league debut, but his path was blocked by the emergence of Jazz Chisholm.
He opted to sit out the 2020 COVID season and then ended up being traded to the Giants. He’s always hit well in the minor leagues (.266/.358/.524, .882 OPS, 65 homers in five Triple-A seasons), but that hasn’t translated against big-league pitching (.179/.269/.277).
He’s played mostly second base and third base throughout his career.
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