Fresh Cleats is a series where we track the newest arrivals to the show — the can’t-miss prospects, the long-shot journeymen, and the ones getting a second (or third) crack at it. Some stick. Some don’t. We’re here for all of it.
Some debuts get remembered. This one gets written into the record books.
St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Joshua Báez, the organization’s No. 3 prospect, was called up from Triple-A Memphis on Friday night and inserted into Saturday’s lineup at Wrigley Field against the Cubs. What followed was a performance no player in the history of Major League Baseball had ever produced: Báez became the first player ever to homer in each of his first three career at-bats, powering the Cardinals to an 8-4 win.
How it happened
Báez wasted no time announcing himself, turning around the first pitch he ever saw in the majors — a 93.4 mph fastball from lefty Matthew Boyd — for a 449-foot blast to center field. It was just the 33rd first-pitch home run in MLB history and gave St. Louis an early 3-0 lead. Chicago answered with a Michael Conforto three-run shot to tie it, but Báez wasn’t finished: he led off the fourth with a solo homer to left, then added a two-run shot to right in the sixth, this time chasing Boyd from the game entirely. He finished 3-for-4 with 5 RBI, and even had a shot at a fourth homer in the eighth before lining out.
Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol didn’t hide his excitement postgame, saying the moment was rare enough that it made him stop and simply enjoy watching it unfold. Báez was similarly stunned, telling reporters afterward that it still felt unreal to him.
The scouting profile behind the moment
This wasn’t a fluke. Báez, a 2021 second-round pick out of Dexter Southfield School in Brookline, Massachusetts, was in the middle of a monster Triple-A season before the call-up, slashing .256/.328/.573 with 34 home runs (tops among all Triple-A hitters), 90 RBI, 21 stolen bases and a .901 OPS in 103 games at Memphis. The raw power has never been in question — he posted a four-homer game back in June — but the swing decisions and in-game adjustments that produced Saturday’s performance are exactly what scouts had been waiting to see translate against big-league pitching.
The scouting grades, explained
Báez enters the league with a 60 Future Value (FV) grade on our 20-80 scale, where 50 is league-average and every 10-point jump represents a meaningful step up in quality. Here’s how his individual tools break down, and what each one means in plain terms:
- Hit: 55 — a tick above average. Báez isn’t a pure contact hitter, but he makes enough quality swing decisions to avoid being a drag on batting average, even with an aggressive approach geared toward damage.
- Power: 65 — well above average, and the headline tool. This is true plus raw power that plays to all fields, exactly what showed up in Saturday’s debut with home runs to center, left, and right.
- Speed: 60 — above-average, underrated part of the profile. Báez stole 21 bases at Triple-A this year, giving him a rare power-speed combination for a corner outfielder.
- FV: 60 — translates to a foundational fantasy asset once he settles into an everyday role, in the range of a low-end first-round or early second-round dynasty startup pick.
The short version for scouting-minded readers: this is a plus-power, above-average-everything-else profile, and Saturday was about as clean a real-time confirmation of that grade sheet as you’ll ever see.
The road here
Báez’s path to Wrigley Field was anything but a straight line. St. Louis took him in the second round out of Dexter Southfield School back in 2021, and his first few pro seasons were rocky. He struck out in over 34% of his plate appearances from 2021 through 2024. His 2023 was especially rough, a .218 season at Class-A Palm Beach that had evaluators wondering whether the power would ever play against better pitching.
The turning point came in 2025. Báez cut his strikeout rate all the way down to 20.6%, slashed .287/.384/.500 with 20 home runs, and stunningly added 54 stolen bases across High-A Peoria and Double-A Springfield. He closed the year on a run of three straight games with a home run.
That breakout carried into 2026, where he’s spent the season proving it wasn’t a fluke. He’s been leading all of Triple-A in home runs and posting the second-most barrels in the minors behind only Brewers thumper Andrew Fischer, and doing it all while continuing to trim the swing-and-miss.
It’s a legitimate five-year developmental arc, not an overnight sensation, and it’s part of why the Cardinals felt confident enough to hand him the keys this weekend.
What it means going forward… and the red flags to watch
Báez entered this week ranked No. 18 in our Top 700, coming off a modest two-spot dip from last week. That number is about to look very outdated. With his rare blend of easy plus power and burgeoning stolen-base value, Báez profiles as an immediate five-category fantasy weapon if St. Louis hands him an everyday role — and after a debut like this, it’s hard to imagine the Cardinals doing anything else.
That said, dynasty owners riding the high of Saturday should keep a level head about what’s still an open question with this profile. Even after 2025’s improvement, Báez’s strikeout rate settled back in around 29.5% during his monster 2026 Triple-A season — a real number, not a minor concern, and one that will get tested hard against big-league velocity and secondary stuff he hasn’t seen at this volume before.
It’s the same profile evaluators have compared to players like Nolan Gorman and Everson Pereira: huge raw power that can produce empty stretches if the swing-and-miss doesn’t hold at an acceptable level. The Cardinals are also managing his roster clock carefully — this call-up was timed specifically to preserve his rookie eligibility for 2027, which tells you the front office is being deliberate rather than assuming he’s simply arrived for good.
In other words: buy the talent, but expect an adjustment period, and don’t be surprised if there are cold stretches mixed in with the highlight-reel power before he’s a finished product.
He’ll look for an encore Sunday night against the Cubs in the series finale.