After leading Triple-A in homers, Báez bringing his barrel to The Show
This browser does not support the video element.
The Cardinals already boast one homegrown power-hitting corner outfielder in Jordan Walker. Joshua Báez has set them up to have two as early as this weekend.
The Cardinals plan to call up their No. 3 prospect on Saturday for his Major League debut against the Cubs, manager Oliver Marmol said at Chicago’s Wrigley Field on Friday. By calling him up now, Báez won’t exceed 45 days of service time in 2026, and unless he accrues more than 130 at-bats the remainder of the way, he will still be rookie-eligible next season.
Ranked as MLB Pipeline’s No. 59 overall prospect, Báez hit .256/.328/.573 over 103 games with Triple-A Memphis this season. His 34 homers are the most by any Triple-A hitter to this point in 2026 and tied for second-most among all Minor Leaguers, trailing only Andrew Fischer’s 36 in the Brewers system. His 59 total extra-base hits are also second-most in the Minors, while his 235 total bases place third and his .317 isolated slugging percentage is fourth among full-season qualifiers.
The traditional stats only tell part of the story of the plus-plus raw power in the right-handed slugger’s bat.
Báez also has the most barrels in Triple-A this season with 55; no one else has more than 43. Only Yordan Alvarez (63) and James Wood (60) have collected more in the Majors. Of the balls he’s put in play, 51.1 percent of them have been hit hard (i.e. with exit velocities above 95 mph); no one on the Cardinals’ Major League team has a hard-hit rate above 49.3 percent (Alec Burleson). His max exit velocity in 2026 is 115.4 mph, and his 90th-percentile EV is 108.5 mph, which would put him in the same region as Mike Trout (108.5), Munetaka Murakami (108.4) and Matt Olson (108.4) if it carried over to the Majors.
That is no small if.
For as good as Báez’s strength is at the dish, he arrives in The Show with plenty of questions surrounding his hit tool.
Drafted in the second round of the 2021 Draft, Báez’s stock tumbled in his early years as he ran strikeout rates north of 35 percent. Last season, he jumped back on the radar in a major way by looking less noisy and more streamlined at the plate, leading to a much better contact rate. He fanned in only 20.6 percent of his plate appearances with High-A Peoria and Double-A Springfield, prompting him to not only jump up into the Top 100 prospect ranks but also to secure a spot on St. Louis’ 40-man roster before he was Rule 5-eligible last offseason.
Those contact concerns have reemerged, however, during his first taste of Triple-A this summer.
There is still little noise in Báez’s pre-swing setup with his hands held high in his stance, but it’s almost like he starts from too quiet a position before firing. He’s proven particularly vulnerable against fastballs up in -- or above -- the zone and sliders on the outer half of the plate, leading the K rate to creep back up to 29.5 percent for the season before this weekend’s promotion. He’d looked modestly better there of late with a 25.6 K% through 10 games in August, but you can bet Major League pitching will present new challenges with even better heaters and breakers.
Elsewhere in his game, Báez has more speed than you might expect from a 6-foot-3 primary slugger. He exceeded 30 ft/sec Sprint Speeds (aka Bolts) nine times with Memphis, and he swiped 21 bases in 24 attempts. (His 54 steals a year ago was easily a new career high.) He can touch the mid 90s with his arm from the outfield, making him a solid fit for right field, but tellingly, nine of his last 13 starts at Triple-A had come in left as the Cardinals were clearly prepping him for a Major League debut alongside Nathan Church in center and Jordan Walker in right. St. Louis has used Bryan Torres, Everson Pereira and Jose Fermín in left since Lars Nootbaar’s departure to Arizona at the Trade Deadline; Báez’s speed and arm strength could be put to use quickly from that corner.
The Cardinals have been arguably ahead of schedule in their contention window this summer and have sat within striking distance of the final NL Wild Card spot for much of the last few months. After Friday’s 3-0 loss to the Cubs, they sit 3 1/2 games behind the Phillies.
Báez’s arrival could provide the big club with a shot in the arm and a chance to close that gap in the remaining weeks. It could also allow a future cog of Cardinals lineups to get his feet wet on the game’s biggest stage while preserving his eligibility for a Rookie of the Year run in 2027.
In any event, Báez has powered his way to The Show for the first time, something that appeared a distant goal as recently as the start of last season.