8 of the most hated Detroit Tigers players since 2000

Prince Fielder

This one is a bummer because there was a lot of excitement about the arrival of Prince Fielder. When the Tigers signed Fielder to a nine year, $214 million deal, the city of Detroit was excited to get a guy that was a perennial MVP candidate in Milwaukee that hit tank jobs and had fun doing it. He even won the Home Run Derby wearing a Tigers uniform which was pretty sweet.

However, things started taking a turn against him when he only went 1-15 in the World Series in 2012. He certainly wasn't the only reason that the Tigers didn't win, but his offensive ineptitude in the series definitely didn't help. Then, his numbers started to dip in 2013 when he posted an .819 OPS and fans started wondering if/when the guy Detroit gave all that money to was going to show up. After another lackluster showing in the playoffs (and comments afterwards that were less than contrite), Detroit ended up trading Fielder to the Rangers where he would play parts of three more seasons before issues with his neck would prematurely end his career. One has to wonder if those neck issues impacted his time in Detroit, but fans are instead left to wonder what could have happened if that money had been spent elsewhere.

Javier Baez

Finally, we come to the only active Tigers player on this list in Javier Baez. This was always a risky bet as the free-swinging Baez had a long history of being a feast or famine sort of hitter. When he was good, he was REALLY good on both sides of the ball. However, he would also have this stretches where he was the easiest guy to strike out in the league and very rarely drew walks which made his slumps feel much worse. However, that did not deter the Tigers from signing Baez to a six year, $140 million before the 2022.

The rest of the story (so far) is already well documented. Baez has been pretty dreadful at the plate with the Tigers with a combined .636 OPS in a season and a half or so of play. There have been benchings from his struggles and making boneheaded plays due to total lack of game awareness. To the surprise of no one, there have also been a lot of strikeouts yet again. Things could, in theory, turnaround still but Baez's contract is currently among the worst in baseball and Tigers fans are already tired of being reminded of that every time he takes the field.

More Tigers News from Motor City Bengals