The Detroit Tigers brought the best record in the American League to Nationals Park last week because Tarik Skubal is an animal of an ace who fronts a rotation tied for baseball’s third-best ERA entering Thursday, because left fielder Riley Greene is having a monstrous season that’s establishing him as a star, because Manager A.J. Hinch maximizes his roster by pinch-hitting more often than all but one team and values versatility, and because a young clubhouse got a taste of October a year ago and clearly wants more.“They’re all-in,” Hinch said.

But the Tigers also led the American League Central by a whopping 12.5 games entering Sunday’s play because a player most people considered completely lost found himself. Javier Báez is a World Series champ and an all-star, a Gold Glove winner and an MVP of the National League Championship Series, a player who once drove in 111 runs to lead the NL. He has also been just about the worst everyday player in the game.

Think about this: Last year, 324 major leaguers logged at least 250 plate appearances; Báez’s .516 OPS ranked 323rd. He was shut down in August after finally succumbing to an injured hip, on which he eventually had surgery. On Wednesday night, he was named the starting center fielder for the AL all-star team.

“At this time (last year), I didn’t know I was going to come back or if things were going to get better,” Báez told reporters after the Tigers’ 9-4 loss to the Washington Nationals on Wednesday night. “But I got the surgery, I got my work done, and it’s paying off right now.”

This is a baseball story about a good player on a good team. But it’s also a redemption story, a reminder that cutting bait isn’t always better than casting another line. When Báez’s 2024 season ended in August, he was still owed $73 million over the following three seasons. The Tigers didn’t consider swallowing the money. They worked to get Báez healthy and then to feather him into a team that had transformed while he was out — a sub-.500 squad that made a frantic 24-10 push into the playoffs. It could have looked as if the turnaround happened because Báez was out.

The Tigers are adamant that wasn’t the case.

“Everybody loves Javy,” Hinch said.

“We root for him. We love being around him.

“He makes you smile every day. He’s ingrained in every aspect of our clubhouse.

“And so you had empathy for him because here we are celebrating and he’s at the lowest moment of his career. And he didn’t become a distraction, didn’t pout — and also didn’t assume anything coming back.”

When Báez first came up as a do-anything-and-everything firecracker with the Chicago Cubs — first for parts of 2014 and 2015, then full time in 2016 — he was mesmerizing. The Cubs used him at shortstop, second and third. He was outstanding at all three.

“The way he plays the game, it’s really different,” said Nationals Manager Dave Martinez, who was the Cubs’ bench coach from 2015 to 2017. “I mean, you watch him make tags, you watch him on the bases, it was special. We don’t do the things we did over there without him.”

Those things included bursting into the playoffs with an exciting young core in 2015, winning the World Series the following year, then returning to the postseason the next two years. But in 2021, the struggling Cubs exploded their roster, trading World Series heroes Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo and Báez, who ended up with the New York Mets. That offseason, he signed his deal with Detroit, where Hinch was entering his second season as manager.

The ride was occasionally bumpy. In 2023, Hinch pulled Báez mid-game after Báez forgot how many outs there were and was doubled off second.

Then last August, while making an emotional return to Wrigley Field for the first time as an opposing player, he finally gave in to the hip injury, his stats in the toilet, his career at a crossroads.

Rehab followed. Hinch told Báez he would talk to him when he was healthy. At spring training, they had what started as a casual conversation.

He just wanted to know how he could help us win,” Hinch said. “Like: ‘What can I do? What do you need from me?’ Which, number one, is an incredible question coming from somebody as accomplished as him. Number two, it showed me that he recognized that our team was different than when he left. … The expectations were different. The way teams looked at us, the way people looked at us. We now had a room full of players with playoff experience.”

A deadline deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers had landed shortstop Trey Sweeney. The Tigers were full of young, versatile players. Báez was 32 and coming off his worst season. Hinch still saw an opportunity. The conversation continued.

“I think you can be one of the best utility players around, playing a lot but playing second, short, third — and center,” Hinch said he told Báez. “When I mentioned center, his eyes lit up like a kid.”

Turns out this was a dream that dated back more than a decade.

“We put him out there and watched him shag balls,” Martinez said. “He was tremendous out there. We often joked about how he could be out there every day.”

He is revived. After hitting .184 in 2024, he entered play Thursday hitting .284. After that among-the-worst-in-the-game OPS, he is up to .778 — 45 points higher than his career mark, almost identical to the number he posted in all those years with the Cubs.

He has moved back to shortstop more regularly but will line up alongside Greene in the outfield when the AL team takes the field in the bottom of the first in Atlanta.

“It’s pretty great,” Báez said. “… That’s what I worked for, to be an all-star. My transfer to center field locked me in to focus, and I have been feeling good.”

Feeling good because it’s a feel-good story. Lost causes aren’t always lost.