Cardinals fans will have to wait a little longer to see Joshua Baez mash big league homers

The St. Louis Cardinals did the expected during Monday's trade deadline and opened up spots on the major league roster for their prospects. After dealing three major leaguers, the first move to fill the spot vacated by Lars Nootbaar will leave some fans scratching their heads. According to Derrick Goold, the Cardinals have recalled infielder Cesar Prieto to take the 26-man spot for the time being.

With Lars Nootbaar now reuniting with best buddy Nolan Arenado in Arizona, an everyday spot in left field is ready and waiting. The hopeful expectation was that mashing prospect Joshua Baez would be on his way to St. Louis, but we will have to wait for a week or so until that will become a reality. There are plenty of players in the minors we may see up in the bigs over the next two months, but keeping Baez down could be a little bit of service time manipulation.

Cardinals are likely waiting to call up Joshua Baez until August 15 for rookie eligibility awards

Baez not being called up immediately upon Noot's departure is likely seen as a bummer, but the slugging outfielder has hit a little roadblock again over the last few weeks. While he has hit three more homers over the past week, Baez's strikeout rate over the last 15 days is over 34% while walking 9% of the time. This has been the knock on the top 100 prospect all season, and we may just have to come to the realization that strikeouts will just be part of his game.

While the Cardinals could easily argue the contact rate is the reason he has not yet been called up, the more likely reality is that they wanted to make sure they can retain his rookie eligibility going into the 2027 season, if there is one. In order to maintain his rookie status, the earliest that Baez can be called up and stay for the rest of the year is August 15, so I would still bet on us seeing him in St. Louis at some point this year. By using Prieto as a stopgap, the Cardinals did not have to deal with wacky scheduling and phantom promotions/demotions to keep him eligible. While with the big league team, Prieto will likely fill a utility role with Bryan Torres and Nelson Velazquez, creating a platoon in the outfield with Jose Fermin mixing in when he is not in the infield.

The late-season call-up is nothing new to the Cardinals or other teams around the league. St. Louis used this same strategy with Masyn Winn in 2023, giving him a 37-game sample to get his feet wet in the bigs before giving him a full runway in the following season. It seemed to help the shortstop, as he struggled mightily in his first taste of the majors before showing a great jump in his true rookie season. A similar strategy was employed last year when the Cardinals promoted catcher Jimmy Crooks for 15 games, although his progression this season has not been as smooth as Winn. Crooks spent most of the year in the minors again but has had his evaluation period going since his promotion at the end of May.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow