How can you not be romantic about baseball?
Javier Baez’s MLB career looked dead. The former Chicago Cubs superstar hadn’t been good for multiple years. In fact, he was terrible, incapable of hitting fastballs or breaking balls or anything at all.
The dynamic power-speed-defense legacy of Baez was being overtaken by horrific late-career struggles.
But somehow, Baez flipped the script in a way no one saw coming.
He’s now performing as one of the best players in baseball once again, starring for the Detroit Tigers in the most surprising renaissance in recent MLB memory.
Baez’s exclamation point on his revival came Tuesday night, when he launched an early three-run home run, then hit a second three-run HR in the bottom of the 11th inning to walk-off a 10-9 Tigers win.
It’s magical stuff.
Baez is now hitting .319 and slugging .513.
The Javier Báez renaissance is one of the coolest stories of the 2025 season. Now hitting .319/.357/.513 with five home runs and 27 RBIs in 34 games. And this walk-off capped a night in which he hit a pair of three-run homers. pic.twitter.com/7BMhdS2KVJ
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) May 14, 2025
MORE: Pete Rose announcement creates steroid question for Hall of Fame
Last year, in 80 games, Baez hit .184 and slugged .294. The year prior, it was .222/.325.
You have to go back to a .265 average and 31 home runs in 2021 to find Baez as somewhat his normal self.
Baez’s swing looks like his old masterpiece, the powerful, fear-inducing, right-handed blitzkrieg of a swing.
He’s playing with a swagger again, and doing it while transitioning into a lot of time in centerfield.
They called him ‘El Mago’ in Chicago, the Magician.
This may be his best trick yet.
Baez turned himself from maybe the worst player in baseball back into one of the best.
Baseball is truly the best game in the world.
MORE MLB NEWS:
