There has never, in the long and celebrated history of Major League Baseball, been a better debut than the one Cardinals outfielder Joshua Baez authored at Wrigley Field on Saturday afternoon as Baez became the first player to ever go deep in the first three plate appearances of a career.
The 23-year-old slugger got things started with a bang, pulverizing the 0-0 pitch of his first at-bat 449 feet over the batter’s eye in dead center. That sent the Cardinals’ dugout into a frenzy. Players banged uncontrollably on the dugout railing. Coaches stood shellshocked, mouths agape. Baez couldn’t stop smiling as he floated around the bases. It was a magnificent opening salvo for a player whose calling card is light-tower power. It was also just the start.
Baez went yard again in his second trip to the dish. Savvy veteran Matthew Boyd tried to sneak a full-count changeup past Baez. The hulking slugger turned it into a souvenir, pulling the offering down the left-field line over the ivy and into the seats. But he wasn’t done. With a runner on first in the top of the sixth, Baez got the better of Boyd once again, poking an outer-half slider into the front row in right. Three at-bats; three homers, all to different parts of the yard. It was a debut beyond anyone’s wildest dreams.
For Baez, the Cardinals’ 8-4 victory was the experience of a lifetime and an appropriate introduction to the big league ball fans that might spend the next decade watching him turn hangers into bangers.
Born in Boston, Baez’s family moved back to their native Dominican Republic when Joshua was an infant. They returned to Massachusetts just over a decade later, settling in Dorchester, a neighborhood located about five miles south of Fenway Park. He began dominating local little leagues almost immediately, winning a state home run derby for his age group at 12. Baez then matriculated into a grassroots youth sports organization called the Boston Blue Jays and started setting that circuit ablaze too, even playing 19U ball as a 13-year-old. His skills were loud, but an unstoppable desire to be great also caught the attention of scouts and coaches.
“He has dedicated blood, sweat and tears to this,” his former travel ball coach Jamill Moquete, also a former minor leaguer, shared with me in 2021. “He literally does not take a day off. Joshua’s mentality is on another level.”
There aren’t many high-level MLB draft prospects from cold-weather urban areas. Frigid winters and rainy springs limit outdoor playing opportunities. The dearth of quality field space in the concrete jungle only accentuates that issue. As a result the competition is significantly worse than in, say, Southern California, Texas or Florida. And for city kids like Baez, those that can’t afford high-level training facilities or indoor batting cages or the über-expensive travel ball circuit, the development curve can be even more difficult. The Boston Blue Jays, and organizations like them, can close that gap.
Baez’s unmissable talents certainly helped too.
He was 6-foot-3, 205 pounds as a 15-year-old. Soon he was up to 98 miles per hour on the mound. His exploits in Boston were legendary, home runs on roofs, onto streets, out of sight. Baez was a man among boys.
“If it breaks right, he could have some peak [Giancarlo] Stanton-type years,” an evaluator who saw Baez in high school proclaimed a few weeks before his draft day in 2021.
The Cardinals agreed, selecting Baez in the second round with the 54th overall pick and eventually signing the toolshed youngster to a $2.25 million bonus. But professional ball wasn’t a smooth road right away. It took Baez parts of four seasons to reach High-A. He showcased mammoth juice, but also swung and missed beyond a red-flag clip. In 2023, his second stint at Low-A Palm Beach, Baez struck out over a third of the time.
But last year, something clicked. Baez slugged 20 homers with an .884 OPS across High-A and Double-A. Most importantly, he shrunk his strikeout rate all the way down to 20.6 percent. Those improvements carried over to 2026, with Baez clocking a Triple-A leading 34 homers before his call-up and unforgettable debut Saturday.
It’s important to note that there are still legitimate concerns about Baez’s hit tool. Across 103 games in Memphis, his K rate was ticking up and his walk-rate ticking down. He’s never going to win a batting title. As so often comes with big power, Baez has a long swing, one that limits his overall feel for the barrel. Evaluators have him pegged as just alright in the outfield, certainly best suited to a corner outfield spot.
But the debut Saturday showcased why exactly Cardinals fans and officials have been extremely giddy about Baez for a while. There are very few human beings on Earth who can hit a baseball as hard and as far as this guy. That gives Baez more room for error in terms of offensive impact. And if it all works, and he takes some offensive strides and adapts swimmingly to big-league pitching, Baez could be one of the most dangerous hitters in the league. The prospect of him and Jordan Walker hitting behind NL Rookie of the Year favorite JJ Wetherholt for the foreseeable future is enough to make a disenchanted Cardinals fan dream of a better tomorrow.
At worst, he’s going to deliver some highlight reel longballs, just like he did during that one-of-a-kind debut.