Detroit Tigers: Sandy Baez’s development continued it’s upward trend

With the 2018 season coming to a close, we are providing year-end grades to each Detroit Tigers player who donned the Olde English D in 2018.

The Detroit Tigers completed the first year of what looks to be a multi-year rebuilding process. While the team was hard to watch at times, there is still plenty to evaluate from this season as we look ahead to the next few years.

As with any team, there were a lot of excellent performances, surprise performances, and of course disappointing performances. Here at Motor City Bengals, we are going to be evaluating each player who suited up for the Detroit Tigers this season. We will analyze how they performed, what their future holds in the Motor City, and we will provide them a grade.

Note: the grade will be relative to what was expected of them. So a player who performed well above expectations may earn a B or an A, even if their actual season numbers are not that elite. If you disagree, feel free to drop us a comment. We would love to have discussions about these!

While Christin Stewart drew most of the attention, Mike Gerber found himself taking a step back. Both prospects weren’t the only one’s to make their debuts this season.

Sandy Baez

Baez made his first appearance with the Tigers in June. He then came back up to the bigs when the Tigers expanded their roster in September. So far he’s thrown 13 innings in the majors. He posted a 3.46 ERA and a 1.08 WHIP in those innings. He hasn’t translated his pitching into a lot of strikeouts but with the prospect playing in the Arizona Fall League he’ll be looking to compete for a bullpen spot next season.

He’s currently the Tigers number 26 prospect according to MLB Pipeline. They compared him to a Joaquin Benoit type, noting that he could rise to the Tigers expectations.

Grade: B

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