Javy Báez's updated, troubling injury timeline could force Tigers' hand come 2025

It's all going from bad to worse for Javy Báez this season, but is anyone really that shocked? In year three of his six-year deal with the Tigers, he's hit .184 with a career-worst .516 OPS. He went on the IL (again) on Aug. 23 with two different kinds of lumbar and hip inflammation and was transferred to the 60-day just a few days later, effectively ending his season.

It's never good when a player gets hurt, but Tigers fans certainly haven't missed seeing him in the lineup. Detroit is toying with a postseason push (made a little more distant with their back-to-back losses to the Padres on Monday and Wednesday), and Báez would do next to nothing to aid them in that fight.

A few hours before the game on Wednesday, the Tigers announced that Báez had undergone hip arthroscopic surgery, which muddles his timeline to return even further. Per Evan Petzold of The Detroit Free Press, he could be ready anywhere between 12 weeks and 12 months, which means he could miss almost the entirety of the 2025 season if it's closer to the latter timeline.

The Tigers still have a $73 million monkey on their backs in the form of Báez's contract, one of the worst in baseball history. If it looks like he might not be able to play until September of next year, is it finally time to sever ties?

Javier Báez's hip surgery could keep him away from the Tigers until September 2025

If it does turn out that Báez will miss five out of six months of the 2025 season, then the Tigers need to finally eat the rest of the money or they never will. It'd be hard to feel bad for him at all even if he's dumped and can't get a contract with another team (which he definitely wouldn't). He'd still be receiving every cent of what the Tigers still owe him, and he'd be able to cruise into an early retirement instead of being meme fodder for the next three years.

Maybe the Tigers just don't want to say out loud that they made a mistake, but letting him go would just confirm what fans already know. If anything, dumping him might be a way to actually earn some goodwill with the fan base and move on with their promising young core.

Báez is the oldest position player on the Tigers, and by a lot. The Tigers have a good thing going here with their young players — they've moved Trey Sweeney to shortstop on a full-time basis since Báez went down — and keeping him would prevent the lineup from fully transitioning into the next stage that could really take them to the postseason next year.

Now's a good a time as any. In fact, it might be the best time. Detroit needs to finally close the book on this chapter if they truly want to start looking ahead.