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Detroit Tigers' Javier Báez expected to be ready for 2025 Opening Day after hip surgery
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- Detroit Tigers' Javier Báez expected to be ready for 2025 Opening Day after hip surgery
Detroit Tigers shortstop Javier Báez won't start the 2025 season on the injured list.
He is expected to be ready for Opening Day.
Báez, owed $73 million from 2025-27, continues to recover from the right hip surgery in early September that ended his 2024 season , but the Tigers are planning on him being a full participant in spring training, seemingly sooner rather than later. He already has completed hitting and fielding progressions, though he still needs to complete his running progression.
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"His running is the last thing that he's going to have to deal with," Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said Wednesday, the first day of pitchers and catchers in spring training, "but he's hitting, he's doing ground balls, he's throwing."
Detroit Tigers shortstop Javier Baez bats during spring training at Joker Marchant Stadium in Lakeland, Florida, on Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024.
Position players aren't required to be in camp until Monday for the first full-squad workout. Báez is scheduled to officially report to spring training in the coming days.
"We're going to have to go step-by-step as we start to introduce more and more for him," Hinch said. "We expect him to be full-go at some point this spring, which is great news."
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As part of the rehab process, the Tigers sent coaches and trainers to visit Báez in Puerto Rico this offseason. Báez, who lives in Puerto Rico but has a home in Tampa, also spent time rehabbing at the Tigers' complex in Lakeland.
Five months ago, Báez underwent season-ending arthroscopic right hip surgery .
"He's had a great offseason," Hinch said.
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The Tigers hope Báez's hip procedure will alleviate the lower back pain he has dealt with for at least the past two seasons, which limited his ability to rotate during his swings. In 2024, Báez hit .184 with six home runs, 12 walks and 69 strikeouts across 80 games, posting a career-worst .516 OPS.
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Báez — a former All-Star slugger who signed a six-year, $140 million contract in December 2021 — hasn't hit more than nine home runs in a season since 2022, but the ability to rotate freely again should open the door for him to elevate his raw power into game power for the first time in years.
The Tigers don't have a date for when Báez will be removed from the biweekly injury report.
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But he's headed in the right direction.
"We'll see him later this week when he comes back, and we'll get a plan in place," Hinch said. "Until we get him in front of us, I got to sit down and talk to him, I don't have an exact date yet."
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold .
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Javier Báez injury update: Tigers expect him ready for Opening Day
