Tigers fans still holding out hope for changes despite Scott Harris' shortstop plan

Detroit Tigers fans saw one of their worst nightmares come true this week when Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press provided an update on the team's shortstop situation based on president of baseball operations Scott Harris' comments at the MLB general manager meetings.

"The Detroit Tigers have a plan at the shortstop position," Petzold wrote. "The plan involves Javier Báez."

More specifically, that plan involves platooning Báez with Trey Sweeney at shortstop in 2025, with the former starting against left-handed pitchers and the latter starting against right-handers. Suffice to say, that's exactly what Tigers fans did not want to hear.

Harris' defense of the plan is that it "makes sense on a whiteboard," but that argument only holds up as far as Báez can hit a baseball – which, based on recent history, is very bad news for Tigers fans. In three years with Detroit, he has hit just .221/.263/.347 – a slash line that looks even more abysmal when viewed in the context of his multiple stints on the injured list and his six-year, $140 million contract that doesn't expire until 2027.

Tigers 2025 shortstop plan involves Javier Baez and Trey Sweeney

Harris said (via Petzold) that "the best version of Javy can still really help us." While that may be true, "the best version of Javy" has been AWOL since 2021, and there have been no signs that he is coming back anytime soon.

Báez is still recovering from season-ending hip surgery, and his status for the start of spring training is unknown. But the fact of the matter is that Báez, even when healthy, has done nothing over the previous three seasons to prove that he makes this Tigers team better than it is without him.

Surely, Harris has to realize that paying more than $20 million a season through 2027 for a player who isn't even expected to be a starter when he's healthy is ludicrous ... right?

The Tigers remain outwardly committed to Báez being a part of the team's future (they don't really have a choice when they've already committed that much money to him), but for now, we will hold on to the glimmer of hope that Harris and company will eventually come to their senses and either cut bait or come up with a more sensible plan.

More Tigers content from Motor City Bengals