CHICAGO — With a big smile on his face, Joshua Báez bounded up the steps in Wrigley Field’s visitors’ dugout to greet the 30-plus friends and family members who had just witnessed his dazzling major-league debut, an unprecedented tour de force in baseball’s long, rich history.
Truly, the St. Louis Cardinals could not have scripted this any better. Any last-minute rewrites would have sounded too unrealistic. A front office can have its projections on a computer screen. The coaching staff will make its own evaluations. But no one had ever entered The Show in this fashion.
Báez hit three home runs in his first three at-bats on Saturday afternoon, powering his team to an 8-4 victory over the Chicago Cubs in a rivalry that dates back to 1892. The light rain falling in Wrigleyville added to the cinematic feel.
After jumping up and down with Báez in a postgame group hug on the field, those in the crowd stepped back so he could embrace his mother, Yris Báez, and soak in the moment.
Joshua Báez celebrated with friends and family after his MLB debut on Saturday. (Paul Beaty / Associated Press)
Now 23, Báez was born in Boston before returning to his family’s roots in the Dominican Republic. After they moved back to Massachusetts, Báez learned English and landed an opportunity at Dexter Southfield, a prep school four miles from Fenway Park that John F. Kennedy attended as a young boy.
To earn some gas money to get around to baseball events, Báez worked as a delivery driver for DoorDash, Peter Gammons once wrote. As he chased his dream in the minors, he lost his father, Jose Manuel Báez, an enormously influential figure, three years ago. The son promised to make it to the majors in his honor.
“Just a big, stubborn guy who had so much power and so much strength,” Báez recalled.
As Báez played left field on Saturday, he initially found it strange that a bee kept following him and buzzing around the brim of his hat. Without getting stung, he eventually interpreted the bee as a sign of his father’s presence, another surreal element of an unforgettable day.
Báez Bombs are here, St. Louis! 💣 pic.twitter.com/TENioKu6gr
— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) August 15, 2026
Surveying the postgame scene at the iconic ballpark, Cardinals manager Oli Marmol made a point to hug Báez’s mother and acknowledge her impact on the 6-foot-3, 220-pound slugger.
“No one gets here on their own,” Marmol said. “You have to have such a support group just to keep you sane because there’s so many ups and downs in this game. To get to the highest level, there’s usually a group of people that kept you in the right frame of mind and supported you and loved you through that whole process.
“I’m guessing a lot of those people were on the field. I just wanted his mom to hear it from me, as far as how special today was, and to enjoy it and take it in. Sit out there for as long as you want.”
It always takes a village. As the group dispersed after taking a photo with Wrigley Field’s famed bleachers in the background, someone started a “JOSH-U-A! JOSH-U-A!” chant. What may have appeared to be an overnight sensation to the rest of the baseball world was actually a shining example of perseverance. The Cardinals are about to find out how far Báez can take his prodigious talents.
“Seeing the work that he put in,” Yris said through an interpreter, “all the progress that he made, this is something that God gave me. It’s a really special feeling.”
Scouting will forever be an inexact science, but the degree of difficulty exponentially increased when Báez first popped onto the Cardinals’ radar in the summer of 2020. With access to players curtailed and coronavirus regulations in place amid the pandemic, showcases were reduced and attendance was limited.
Still, Báez, a two-way player at the time, could not be missed.
“His power and the potential his athleticism afforded him was immense,” St. Louis scouting director Randy Flores said.
Báez had just turned 18 when the Cardinals selected him with their second-round pick one year later in the 2021 draft. He was one of the youngest players of his draft class, and St. Louis would have to buy out his college commitment to Vanderbilt with a $2.25 million signing bonus. But club officials were captivated not just by his monstrous power, but how he was able to carry it to all fields.
“What you saw Saturday is what we saw in the summer,” Flores said. “We call it real power. He went left field, center field, right field. Sometimes when high schoolers do have power, they sell out for pull-side power. But with Báez, his strength is so natural that he doesn’t have to go pull-side to get the ball over the fence. That stood out.”
The Cardinals made Joshua Báez a second-round pick in 2021. (Jessie Alcheh / Getty Images)
St. Louis took Báez with the No. 54 pick, opting for the long game with their young power hitter. It took much longer than the prospect — and the organization — anticipated. A wrist injury cost Báez most of his first full pro season in 2022. Then, a glaring problem showed up.
“His natural talent got him to survive a bit in the minor leagues,” Flores said, “before the swing-and-miss became an issue where he had to change.”
Concern started to grow when the 2023 season began. Báez still had the power, but his swing had too many holes. Some of that stemmed from his stature: at 6-foot-3, Báez’s strike zone was already large. His elite bat speed made connecting on balls in that zone even tougher. Báez’s strikeout rate ballooned to 34 percent in A ball.
It did not improve in 2024. When Báez’s K-rate topped out at 39 percent in High A, a call to action took place. The Cardinals put Báez on the development list, taking him out of games entirely, and sent him back to the team complex in Jupiter, Fla., to start from scratch.
Team evaluators believed they had identified the problem, but it would require a major overhaul of Báez’s swing.
“There were some cues and instructions for how his body and swing moves that would give him a chance to reach his power,” Flores said. “He was all for it and all in.”
Brock Hammit, who is now the organization’s minor-league hitting coordinator, worked extensively with Báez to start that process.
“The big priority was just making some changes with his swing path to try to optimize it more for contact,” Hammit explained. “A lot of it is path related, trying to get him to be on the plane of the pitch longer.”
After several weeks at the complex, Báez returned to game action. The Cardinals were encouraged not just by the early looks at his swing, but also by his attitude.
“That’s probably the most impressive thing about his whole evolution,” Hammit said. “Even when he was at his quote-unquote lowest point, he was still tremendously confident.”
Teammates celebrate a HISTORIC 3-HR game
The Memphis Redbirds clubhouse erupted watching Joshua Báez’s third home run in his MLB debut!
📹: @_LooCijntje pic.twitter.com/fYnU7sshPq
— Minor League Baseball (@MiLB) August 16, 2026
As Báez’s whiff rate shrank, the organization’s optimism grew. His strikeout rate had dropped below 30 percent, and had not come at the cost of his power.
“You started to see him actually have fun playing the game again,” Flores said.
At the end of the 2025 season, Báez had won a championship with Double-A Springfield, and clubbed 20 homers to go with 54 stolen bases between two minor-league levels. At the start of this season, he had re-established himself as one of the Cardinals’ top prospects. As the year went on, the question was not if he’d debut this season, but when.
As he watched history unfold from Wrigley Field’s visitors’ dugout on Saturday, Cardinals bench coach Daniel Descalso made a joking suggestion to Marmol after Báez launched his third home run into the right-field bleachers in the sixth inning: Hey, we’re taking him out for defense, right?
“Oli gave me the side-eye,” Descalso said.
The Cardinal Way is not an abstract concept for Marmol, 40, and Descalso, 39, who once overlapped as teammates in the St. Louis farm system and became close friends over the years. In 2011, Descalso’s rookie season with the Cardinals, he earned a World Series ring that marked the franchise’s 11th championship.
Báez’s explosive debut reminded Marmol of his first season as a major-league manager in 2022, when he marveled at Albert Pujols hitting his 700th career home run, a rare instance that took him out of his normal in-game flow. Marmol could also feel the energy from Saturday’s crowd of 39,834, which featured a vocal segment of Cardinals fans.
“It’s a sneak peek as to what this back-and-forth over the next couple years might look like,” Marmol said. “I’m looking forward to it.”
That proud tradition is gradually being restored after a multi-year period of transition. John Mozeliak, the club’s general manager or president of baseball operations for 18 seasons of regular playoff contention, is now running the Los Angeles Angels on an interim basis. As part of the succession plan in St. Louis, Chaim Bloom was hired as an advisor before the 2024 season and then elevated as the top baseball executive after last year’s 78-84 finish.
In the years between, Bloom’s most pressing priority was to revamp the Cardinals’ player development system. He hired Rob Cerfolio (director of player development), Larry Day (farm director) and roughly a dozen new minor-league coordinators, which helped jumpstart that process.
The Cardinals are already seeing early returns on that investment. Once an industry leader in churning out homegrown talent, a new core is emerging. Jordan Walker (first-round pick in 2020), Masyn Winn (second-round pick in 2020), Alec Burleson (second-round pick in 2020), Michael McGreevy (first-round pick in 2021) and Iván Herrera (international signing in 2016) are enjoying breakout seasons. JJ Wetherholt (first-round pick in 2024) is the frontrunner for National League Rookie of the Year, and recently inked an eight-year, $112.5 million extension, the largest for a pre-arbitration player in club history.
Their emergence has rejuvenated the franchise, and possibly expedited what had been expected to be a multi-year rebuild under Bloom. Báez hopes to be the next name in that group.
When Báez reported to Wrigley Field on Saturday morning, Descalso observed a player who seemed to be comfortable with his surroundings and focused on his routine.
“He’s just another example of what we’re trying to do here,” Descalso said.
Manager Oli Marmol and the Cardinals are about to find out how far Joshua Báez can go. (Jessie Alcheh / Getty Images)
Tellingly, Báez hit three different types of pitches (fastball, changeup, slider) to three different parts of the ballpark (center, left, right) off an experienced left-handed pitcher (Matthew Boyd) who has pitched for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic and in the last two postseasons.
“It’s his ability to endure the struggles and come out on the other end,” Descalso said. “All the work that he had done in the minor leagues was building to this goal of getting to the big leagues. Now, obviously, the goal is to make adjustments and stay here.”
In the first game of the rest of his life, Báez went 0-for-5 with three strikeouts and then got subbed out for defense in the eighth inning of Sunday’s 11-4 win over the Cubs. The Cardinals still dominated the game to the point where fans headed toward the exits early and Cubs catcher Carson Kelly pitched the ninth inning of a blowout.
The Cardinals left Wrigley Field two games over .500, remaining within striking distance of a wild-card berth despite a soft sell at the trade deadline, and suddenly energized by a new character in this saga.
“It’s not quiet with him, but that’s what I love,” Marmol said. “We can talk about the skillset, but it’s the personality that I’ve been dying to see up here, because you inject that into a group that already has some edge and F-U to them.”
