The talk this offseason for the Detroit Tigers has been nothing but Tarik Skubal. However, there are plenty of issues that need to be addressed by management if they want to get passed the ALDS next year and play for the Pennant.
The infield is fairly disastrous and has been a letdown in many aspects, including shortstop. There were a pair of players who suited up at the position this year. The ballclub started off with Trey Sweeney and finished with Javier Báez. Neither was a great offensive weapon nor locked down on defense.
The Tigers haven’t been able to commit to a player at shortstop, and that is causing problems. Báez can be used all over the infield, but his primary position in his 14 years of professional baseball has been shortstop. He is locked in with the Tigers until ’28 and should stay where he is most comfortable.
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Truly, this is a young gun vs. veteran type of situation. Sweeney only made his debut in the majors at the end of last year, while Báez took the field for the Chicago Cubs back in August of 2014- 10 years earlier than Sweeney.
Sweeney was going to be the go-to guy at shortstop at first. The Tigers were hoping he would swing a bat like he does in Triple-A, but that was not the case, and he was optioned back to the minors a few different times this season. Looking at how he did down there to finish the year, he definitely has potential- it just did not show up when he was on the Tigers’ roster.
| Batting Average | .257 | .196 |
| On-Base Percentage | .282 | .258 |
| Slugging Percentage | .398 | .291 |
| OPS | .680 | .549 |
| Home Runs | 12 | 6 |
| RBI | 57 | 32 |
| Total Hits | 107 | 58 |
| Runs | 55 | 36 |
| Drawn Walks | 10 | 26 |
| Stolen Bases | 55 | 3 |
| Strikeouts | 109 | 92 |
Neither of these two had good offensive seasons, but Báez was the saving grace for the team in the playoffs and a big reason why the Tigers were able to get out of the wild card then stretch the ALDS to five-games.
After eight games in the postseason, Báez led the team in batting average (.313) to complement his .333 on-base percentage and .469 slugging percentage. The only Tiger with a better OPS was Kerry Carpenter who was over .900.
A positive note to Sweeney’s defensive play at short is that he had the third-fewest errors in baseball (6) and his .981 fielding percentage has him in the top-10. Other than that, he is in the bottom third in assists (184) and double plays (36). Granted, he played fewer games than the rest, but it still didn’t look like the same player that has been in Triple-A.
If Báez looks like he did in the playoffs when the 2026 season starts, then maybe his contract wasn’t a bust, but if he has another regular season like this one, the Tigers could look at trading him.
There were plenty of ups and downs this year for the entire roster, but one position that needs to be addressed in the offseason is definitely short.
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