A.J. Hinch answers question about Javier Baez decision

Detroit Tigers shortstop Javier Baez has been working to improve his plate discipline, but statistically speaking, he is off to a horrendous start. In fact, heading into Tuesday's game against the Blue Jays, he was just 4-for-33 with one RBI on the season. If you happened to turn in for the game, you probably noticed that Baez was hitting fifth in the lineup for the first time. Some looked at this decision as manager A.J. Hinch moving Baez down in the lineup because of his performance, but Hinch did not go that far while speaking to the media before the game.

Key Points

• Baez has been struggling with his plate discipline and has had a poor start to the 2023 season
• Baez was moved to the fifth spot in the lineup for the first time this season
• Hinch did not directly state that the move was due to Baez's poor performance and instead wanted him to focus on getting into the strike zone more.
• Unfortunately, moving Baez down in the lineup did not yield much improvement as he went 0-for-3 with a walk and a run scored in the game.
• Baez needs to improve his batting performance for the Tigers' offense to be successful.

A.J. Hinch answers question about Javier Baez decision

Prior to the game, Hinch was asked about moving Baez down to No. 5 for the first time this season.

“My two choices were three and five in today's lineup, and this is the way I went,” Hinch said. “Hopefully, it gives him a little bit of a different look. Regardless of where he hits, we'd like him to get into the strike zone a little bit more.”

Unfortunately, moving Baez down to No. 5 did not help much as he was 0-for-3 with a walk and a run scored.

Bottom Line: Baez has to get things going

After struggling during the first half of the 2022 season, Baez turned things on a bit in the second half and the hope was that trend would continue in 2023. Well, so far, the highly-paid shortstop is batting just .111 on the season, which is extremely disappointing. For the Tigers' offense to really get going, Baez absolutely must start doing his part.