Javier Baez reminds us he still has magic with slick slide

Puerto Rico second baseman Javier Baez. Sam Navarro-USA TODAY Sports

Watch: Javier Baez reminds us he still has 'the magic' with slick slide to steal third at WBC

By Andrew Kulha | Last updated 3/14/23

The Detroit Tigers are certainly hoping that Javier Báez looks more like the magician in 2023 and less like the guy who struck out swinging at sliders low and away seemingly every other at-bat during the 2022 season.

The Tigers have certainly put their faith in Báez to be one of the key pieces of their rebuild moving forward, and on Monday at the World Baseball Classic, the man known as "El Mago" (The Magician), showed off his bag of tricks once again.

Known for his showmanship on the basepaths, Báez got silly with this swim move slide:

SWIM MOVE ‍♂️

JAVY IS A MAGICIAN

: WBC on FS1 pic.twitter.com/Kli53YL8IG
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) March 13, 2023

Talk about evading the tag. More impressive is the fact that this wasn't some random occurrence from Baez. He's utilized this swim move on the basepaths before — including before in the WBC.

This slide from Javier Baez though @javy23baez #WBC2017 pic.twitter.com/3lzf8cbk2f
— Fanatics View (@fanaticsview) March 21, 2017

Sure, it may be a bit harder for him to pull this off against the Minnesota Twins compared to playing against Team Israel, which lost to Báez's Puerto Rico team, 10-0, but remember, Báez has made a big league career with these kind of plays.

If this is the player Detroit will get this upcoming season, perhaps this edition of Detroit's rebuild (under new general manager Scott Harris) will go better than the last (under Al Avila).

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