Detroit Tigers

The Detroit Tigers are off to a brutal start this season, and manager A.J. Hinch didn't miss a chance to send a message during Thursday's 3-1 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays.

Shortstop Javier Báez lost track of how many outs there were when he was on second base and was promptly doubled up for the third out when he continued running on Akil Baddoo's lineout. Hinch removed him from the game the following inning.

"If you watch the last couple of series, we've made a number of mental mistakes, and the one thing we can control is our preparedness and our readiness," the manager said, per Ian Harrison of the Associated Press. "It's a message to our whole team that we've got to clean that up."

Hinch also said he didn't "want to embarrass anybody" but added, "I also don't want to see a team make mental mistakes."

As for Báez, he is struggling in the early portion of the season with a .122/.182/146 slash line, zero home runs and one RBI. He looks nothing like the player who was a World Series champion, two-time All-Star, Gold Glover and Silver Slugger during his time on the Chicago Cubs.

Yet even though the 30-year-old was a star player on the Cubs, manager David Ross benched him once for a similar mistake during the 2021 season.

"My mind is everywhere right now," Báez said after Thursday's game. "I'm just trying to focus on my hitting and my timing and other stuff."

Detroit's win snapped a six-game losing streak, but it is still just 3-9 and in last place in the American League Central.

Relief pitcher Andrew Chafin is set to join the Arizona Diamondbacks on a one-year, $6.5 million deal, pending a physical, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported Saturday.

Chafin's deal could reportedly reach up to the $7.5 million range with incentives.

He will now return to Arizona, where he started his career and spent seven seasons before bouncing around the league. Chafin had short stints with the Chicago Cubs, Oakland Athletics and most recently the Detroit Tigers.

Chafin signed a two-year deal with the Tigers in March 2022 but decided to activate his opt-out clause after the season ended and entered free agency, where he struggled to find a deal until eventually landing with the Diamondbacks.

Despite a rough Tigers season, Chafin was one of the better pitchers on a good Detroit bullpen that finished with the eighth-lowest ERA in the big leagues (3.43). In 57.1 innings, Chafin finished with a 2.83 ERA with three saves and 19 holds, allowing 48 hits with 19 walks and 67 strikeouts.

Chafin is perhaps best known for being part of a combined no-hitter for the Chicago Cubs during the 2021 season.

While Arizona's bullpen finished with a 4.58 ERA in 2022, they do have some good arms, namely Joe Mantiply, who was named an All-Star last season and finished with a 2.85 ERA over 60 innings.

Miguel Cabrera's curtain call will come in the 2023 campaign.

The longtime slugger announced on Monday that he plans to retire after the upcoming season:

His looming retirement doesn't come as a surprise—Cabrera was a full-time designated hitter last season, and injuries and the realities of aging have seen the once fearsome hitter manage just 45 homers in total over the past five seasons. To put that level of decline in perspective, he once hit 88 homers in a two-year stretch between 2012 and 2013.

But he will undoubtedly be a first-ballot Hall of Famer after he retires.

The 39-year-old is a 12-time All-Star, two-time MVP, seven-time Silver Slugger, four-time batting champion, one-time World Series champion and in 2012 became the first triple crown winner—leading the American League in batting average (.330), homers (44) and RBI (139)—since Carl Yastrzemski pulled off the feat in 1967.

For his career he's a .308 hitter with a .908 OPS who has 507 homers, 1,847 RBI, 3,088 hits and 1,530 runs. He's one of just seven players in MLB history to accumulate at least 500 homers and 3,000 hits, joining Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Eddie Murray, Rafael Palmeiro, Albert Pujols and Alex Rodriguez.

It's one of the most exclusive clubs in baseball history, notwithstanding the questionable legitimacy of Palmeiro's and Rodriguez's accomplishments due to their steroid use.

Such questions have not been asked about Cabrera, who like Pujols came through the tail end of the steroid era in baseball without blemish. Both players make a strong argument for being the best hitters of their era.

Pujols, who retired after the 2022 season, will likewise be a first-ballot Hall of Fame inductee after a career that spanned 22 years. He'll just be inducted one year before Cabrera.

Detroit Tigers shortstop Javier Baez is doing what he can for his home of Puerto Rico as the island deals with the destruction of Hurricane Fiona.

With many without power and the ability to cook or refrigerate food, TMZ Sports noted Baez offered free food at his restaurant, Taquiza, and said: "I know we're going through something very difficult. I'm with you."

Elizabeth Wolfe, Holly Yan and Melissa Alonso of CNN reported emergency crews rescued approximately 1,000 people by Monday.

More than 1.4 million people were also without power, and devastating flooding caused plenty of damage across the island.

President Joe Biden declared a state of emergency in an effort to facilitate federal assistance for Puerto Rico.

As for Baez, he has represented Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic in the past and committed to the team earlier this month for the 2023 tournament.

The Detroit Tigers will reportedly hire Scott Harris as the team's newest president of baseball operations, per ESPN's Jeff Passan.

Harris has spent the past three seasons as the general manager of the San Francisco Giants.

Al Avila had been the Tigers' executive vice president of baseball operations and general manager for seven years before being fired in August. Detroit has already been eliminated from the playoffs and entered Monday with a 55-91 record, fourth-worst in the majors.

It will be the seventh straight year without a playoff appearance for the Tigers, who haven't had a winning record since 2016.

Harris will try to turn things around after some up-and-down seasons in San Francisco.

The Giants missed the playoffs in 2020 and are just 69-77 in 2022, but the team had the best record in baseball last year at 107-55. Several unheralded additions like Kevin Gausman, Anthony DeSclafani, Darin Ruf and LaMonte Wade Jr. helped key the surprising success.

Prior to his time in San Francisco, Harris spent seven years with the Chicago Cubs and was in the front office during the team's World Series run in 2016. He ended his time with the team as the assistant general manager under GM Jed Hoyer and team president Theo Epstein.

The fast-rising executive will now look to turn around a Tigers franchise that has struggled at the major league level and has just one prospect (Jackson Jobe) ranked inside the top 50 across baseball, per MLB.com.

The Detroit Tigers announced Sunday that they placed designated hitter Miguel Cabrera on 10-day injured list with a biceps strain and called up infielder Josh Lester from Triple-A Toledo.

Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic reported Saturday night that Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said the team hoped to have the future Hall of Famer back in 10-14 days.

Cabrera is one of the most decorated players of his generation, with 12 All-Star appearances, four American League batting titles, two AL MVP awards and a World Series title with the Florida Marlins in 2003.

The 39-year-old compiled a mediocre .701 OPS during the 2021 season. He's posted .256 average with four homers in 102 games in 2022, but he enjoyed a landmark moment when he recorded his 3,000th hit in April.

While the Venezuela native was highly durable for the vast majority of his career, injuries have started to become a bigger factor in recent years. He last played over 140 games in 2016, with his most extended absence coming in 2018 when he was limited to 38 games with a ruptured biceps tendon.

Last season, Cabrera missed 32 games, including time spent on the injured list with a biceps strain.

Detroit will likely use a committee approach to fill the void at designated hitter. Eric Haase, Kody Clemens and Willi Castro lead the club's reserve options.

Cabrera landing on the IL doesn't do much to impact the Tigers' outlook for the remainder of the season since they are last in the AL Central with a 51-82 record, but it could impact home attendance since seeing Cabrera at the tail end of his career is one of Detroit's biggest draws, although he plans to play next season.

Detroit Tigers outfielder Austin Meadows discussed his mental health on Friday.

In a post on Twitter, the 2019 All-Star wrote he has been privately working with "a great team of professionals" to get help and he's been back in the clubhouse but is "still not ready to return to the field."

Tigers manager A.J. Hinch praised Meadows for discussing his mental health publicly when speaking to reporters on Friday.

"I commend him for doing it and am very proud of him," Hinch said. "It's not easy as an athlete, as a competitor, to admit when you need help. ... I feel good about the path he's on."

Hinch added Meadows won't play again in 2022.

This has been an eventful season for Meadows, though certainly not in ways he was expecting. He missed five games in a nine-day span in May because of an illness and inner-ear infection that was causing him to experience dizziness.

The Tigers placed Meadows on the injured list on May 16 after he was diagnosed with vertigo. The former first-round draft pick returned to the lineup on June 7. He appeared in eight straight games but tested positive for COVID-19 prior to a June 17 game against the Texas Rangers.

After clearing COVID protocols, Meadows was transferred to the 10-day injured list on June 28 with strains in his left and right Achilles. His rehab assignment with Triple-A Toledo ended after two games when he continued experiencing soreness related to the injuries.

Meadows had a second rehab assignment at Toledo starting on Aug. 10. He appeared in four games before being recalled because he didn't feel ready to compete at the MLB level.

The 27-year-old was traded by the Tampa Bay Rays to Detroit on April 4, three days before the start of the regular season. He hit .250/.347/.328 with eight extra-base hits and 11 RBI in 128 at-bats through 36 games for the Tigers in 2022.

Prior to joining the Tigers, Meadows was a very productive player for the Rays. The Georgia native finished in the top 20 of American League MVP voting in 2019 and 2021. He hit 27 homers and drove in a career-high 106 runs last year.

The Detroit Tigers announced Wednesday that they have "parted ways" with executive vice president and general manager Al Avila, who spent nearly 22 years with the organization.

"Once I decided to make a change, I sat down with Al and thanked him for his nearly 22 years of service to our organization," Tigers chairman and CEO Christopher Ilitch said in a statement. "Al's loyalty and dedication has served as an example to all during his time as a leader in our baseball operations department.

"I will oversee the search process for our next baseball operations leader, in collaboration with several members of our baseball and business operations executive teams."

Ilitch added:

"I want to re-establish our momentum and progress towards building a winning team and I am driven to find a talented executive to help us do that. They'll be entering an organization with many foundational elements in place and an exciting path forward. Tigers fans deserve winning teams, and I'm highly focused and committed to deliver that to the people of Detroit and Michigan. With new baseball operations leadership will come a fresh perspective toward evolving our roster and maximizing our talent to reach our objectives. To be clear, our goals are to build a team that wins on a sustainable basis, qualifies for the playoffs, and ultimately wins the World Series."

The Tigers hired Avila as assistant general manager and vice president in April 2002. In August 2015, he was promoted to general manager and executive vice president after the club released Dave Dombrowski.

Avila said in a statement:

"For nearly 22 years, I have given my heart and soul to this franchise, and I want to thank Mr. and Mrs. Ilitch, along with Chris, for the opportunity and treating me and my family as their own. We've celebrated successes and enjoyed great moments, and I'm proud to have worked with so many talented people in baseball operations and throughout the organization.

"I'll cherish our friendships and the successes we all celebrated together. To Tigers fans, you're the best and you deserve a winner. I wish the results would have been better this season but know there is a lot to look forward to in the coming years. God bless everyone."

Since Avila officially took over in 2015, the Tigers have not made the postseason, finishing only one campaign (2016) above .500.

The Tigers entered into a rebuild in 2017, trading J.D. Martinez, Justin Verlander, Justin Upton, Justin Wilson and Alex Avila midseason.

With the rebuild in full swing, Detroit hired Ron Gardenhire to replace Brad Ausmus in October 2017. After going 64-98 in 2018, the club went on to have a disastrous 2019 campaign, finishing last in the AL Central with a 47-114 record. Detroit hadn't lost more than 100 games since the 2003 season.

Gardenhire remained as the club's manager through most of the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, but he stepped down because of health reasons in late September. Lloyd McClendon took over on an interim basis before being replaced by A.J. Hinch in 2021, and the team finished third in the division.

That brings us to 2022, with the Tigers once again sitting at last place in the AL Central with a 43-68 record despite landing two of the best free agents on the market over the winter in Javier Báez and Eduardo Rodriguez.

However, Báez, along with nearly every other player on the Detroit roster, has underperformed, and Rodriguez has stepped away from the team because of personal reasons, though he is expected to return this month.

The Tigers did see some solid prospects graduate from their minor league system over the 2021 and '22 seasons in Spencer Torkelson, Riley Green, Tarik Skubal, Casey Mize and Matt Manning.

With those promotions, the Tigers have the 24th-ranked prospect pool in MLB, per ESPN's post-trade-deadline rankings. Now the franchise's next general manager will be tasked with not only building up the club's prospect pool but also fielding a contending team.