The Detroit Tigers made some great off-season moves, at least from the looks of things. They went out and got Javier Baez and Austin Meadows, who are two top players in baseball.
Baez is one of the top shortstops in baseball and Austin Meadows is an above-average Major League baseball player. Meadows looks to be swinging the bat well thus far, hitting .267 and only striking out 14 times in over 100 at-bats. Javier Baez, on the other hand, is struggling mightily.
If Baez keeps up his play this season, it would be the worst year of his career without question. He's currently hitting .204 and already has 30 strikeouts in 113 at-bats. He's never really been someone who walks a ton because he's a free swinger, but striking out 30 times and only having five walks isn't the recipe to success.
In his career, he's been known as one of the top shortstops in the game. He has a ton of flare to his game and it makes it fun for baseball fans to watch him. His career sees him with a .262 batting average and 151 home runs in 891 games.
A .262 batting average and 150-plus home runs for a guy that can play above-average defense is certainly an impressive feat, but this year he's not producing like that.
Considering that Baez is getting older and his plate discipline is truly starting to catch up to him, it could be time to start pressing the panic button.
The Tigers have a strong argument to be the worst team in all of baseball. Although it's tough to say that any team in the MLB is worse than the Cincinnati Reds, the Detroit Tigers are right up there.
At 13-25, the Tigers have the worst record in the American League and the third-worst record in all of baseball.
It's still early and things can change, but it's not looking too good in Detroit to start the season.
Despite the slow start from Baez, he should be able to get going sometime soon. He's going to continue striking out at a high rate and not walking much, but he should be able to get that batting average up and blast a few more home runs. He's hit at least 23 home runs in every season besides the COVID year in 2020 since 2017.
