Trevor Story, Javy Báez have fully switched places as Red Sox fans feel Tigers' pain

Javy Báez has somehow done the impossible this season: he's gotten Tigers fans to like him. Arguably nobody in Major League Baseball saw this coming after how his first three seasons in Detroit went.

He was on his way by the end of April, when he hit his first homer of the season for a go-ahead grand slam against the Astros, but he somehow just got better from there, hitting two more home runs in his next two games. May 13 was the day that really changed everything, though; Báez hit a walk-off, three-run homer against the Red Sox in the middle of a series that the Tigers eventually swept. "Javy" chants rained down on Comerica for ... maybe the first time ever?

In the visitor's dugout, however, was a fellow shortstop in Trevor Story, whose descent has happened in curious tandem with Báez's ascent this season. Story sat out of that second game but played in the other two, going 0-7 at the plate with four strikeouts.

Story and Báez are making identical amounts of money over the exact same span of time — they signed six-year, $140 million contracts in 2022 — and both have struggled to contribute to their teams in one way or the other. Báez has historically been outright bad, but Story has struggled with injuries that have been frustrating but not fully his fault.

Now, it's different. Báez might've taken a long time to truly come through offensively, but Story has been neither healthy nor productive at all in his four years as a Red Sox.

Trevor Story and Javy Báez have are following different paths for Red Sox, Tigers

Story's 2022-2024 seasons were all cut short due to injury, while Báez has mostly remained a mainstay in the Tigers' lineup, whether or not Tigers fans liked it. This year, they've both played in the majority of their teams' games, but Story is batting .219 with a .593 OPS and a 0.1 bWAR, while Báez is batting .278 with a .769 OPS and a 1.4 bWAR.

It's hard not to feel bad for Red Sox fans, who have waited forever just to see Story healthy, and are now seeing one of their highest-paid players fall incredibly short of expectations.

Báez still has to get through the rest of this season with good enough numbers to make his great stretch so far look like more than a flash in the pan, but for the moment, he's on his way to shedding the "worst contract bust of all time" reputation while Story is starting to catch that exact same heat.