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Detroit Tigers star shortstop Javier Baez looked to be on another planet in the second inning of his team's 3-1 win over the Toronto Blue Jays, as he appeared to forget how many outs there were while running the bases. Baez, who was doubled up on the basepaths, was promptly removed from the game one inning later by Tigers manager AJ Hinch.
Speaking to reporters after the game, Hinch revealed that pulling Baez, one of the Tigers' highest paid players, was a “message to the whole team.”
“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,” Hinch said after the Tigers' 3-1 victory. “It's a message to our whole team that we've got to clean that up.”
Clearly, Hinch is not pleased with the “mental mistakes” the Tigers, 3-9 through 12 games, have been making lately.
So, when Baez, who also dogged it out of the box thinking his double was a home run, made a Little League-level gaffe on the bases, Hinch took it upon himself to banish the two-time All-Star to the bench.
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Baez, to his credit, took the move in stride, saying that it's “part of the game.”
And Hinch made it clear that he wasn't trying to “embarrass anybody.”
But it's also clear that something has to change for these Tigers, who have now lost seven games in a row.
Perhaps Hinch benching the team's best player will be a wake-up call.
