Mama probably never said there’d be days like this. Newest St. Louis Cardinal Joshua Baez hit three homers in his first three plate appearances as a big-leaguer Saturday in Chicago. According to Baseball Almanac, there have been 22,800 other Major Leaguers since the National League’s founding in 1876. None had a debut to match Baez’s.
In the top of the first inning against the Cubs, the Cards outfielder hit the first big-league pitch he ever saw 449 feet to center, almost leaving Wrigley Field. He faced Cubs left-hander Matthew Boyd again in the third, and put a 3-2 pitch into the left-field bleachers for his second homer. And he threepeated with a bomb to right in the top of the sixth. He finished the day 3-for-4 with five RBIs in the Cards' 8-4 win.
Baez’s unique coming-out party came with a reported entourage of about 30 family members in the Wrigley grandstands; he dedicated the day to his late father, Jose Manuel Baez, before taking the field.
“My dad, his dream was to play in the big leagues,” Báez told MLB.com. “The only promise that I made to him was that I was going to be able to do that for him.”
Power is relatively new to the 23-year-old Baez. He'd never had more than 20 HRs in any of his five seasons in the minors heading into 2026. But before the callup, he had 34 HRs in 103 games already this year playing for the Memphis Red Birds, the Cards’ Triple-A affiliate, including a four-homer day in June. Baez’s ex-mates still in the minors in Memphis were watching on TV in their clubhouse yesterday when he hit the third homer, and proper raucousness ensued.
Baez heads into his second game in the big leagues today, hoping to leapfrog Barney Gilligan, Candy Nelson, and Stump Wiedman on the career home runs list. Stay tuned to Defector to follow this story.
