Joshua Baez’s power surge is becoming impossible for the Cardinals to ignore

Joshua Baez is playing out of his mind right now, and it's getting to a point where it's hard for the St. Louis Cardinals to ignore his eye-popping production down in Triple-A.

On Wednesday, Baez blasted his 17th home run of the season, continuing a red-hot streak at the plate that has seen him bat .432 with six home runs, two triples, three doubles, and 14 RBI over his last six games for the Memphis Redbirds. This season is Baez's first taste of Triple-A, and after a rather slow start to the year, he's been unstoppable as of late.

Baez's 17 bombs are tied for fourth in all of minor league baseball and second among all Triple-A hitters, behind only White Sox's shortstop Jacob Gonzalez, who was just called up to the Majors on May 30th. The Cardinals have been very clear that they want to be patient with Baez to make sure they set him up for long-term success, but his recent dominance in Triple-A will make it hard to keep him down, especially as other bats on the Cardinals' roster continue to struggle.

Joshua Baez may for Chaim Bloom's hand for a call up to Cardinals if he keeps mashing like this

Baez's home run party comes right as Cardinals fans' frustration around Victor Scott II hits an all-time high, as the center fielder continues to struggle mightily at the plate and looks far from being even a competent Major League hitter right now. The thought of replacing Scott in the lineup, who can't even get bunts down well right now, with Baez and his insane power, has to be salivating for the Cardinals. I know it is for most fans right now. Baseball America recently raved about this power output as well.

Baez isn't just hitting bombs right now either; he's stealing bases (11), increasing his contact percentage, and doing the little things right on the field to impress those who are watching closely. It's especially impressive to see that Baez has been cutting down on his strikeouts, as that number dropped from 37% in April to 28% in May, and now he's struck out just once in his first 10 plate appearances in June.

Much like Jimmy Crooks, the Cardinals are going to want to feel confident that Baez has checked as many boxes in his development as possible before a promotion, and two, have a consistent every-day role available to him. While both of those things may feel clear to Cardinals fans, I'm not sure the Cardinals would agree with that.

First on the role, Baez is not someone you necessarily want roaming center field defensively at the big league level right now. Could he grow into that? Possibly, but he's best suited for the corner outfield right now. If they called him up to play over Scott, they'd be rolling the dice on how that impacts their defense that helps them prevent runs right now for a pitching staff that needs it.

Second, on his development, while the red-hot nature of his production right now is beyond exciting, it is doing some heavy lifting on his numbers, and one has to wonder how he's going to look when he is not on this insane heater. Does his swing and miss become a major problem again? Does high-end power output sustain? Every player goes through ups and downs, but is Baez ready to face big league pitching that will look to exploit his weaknesses at the plate each and every game? Those are questions the player development group will have to answer.

But man oh man, if he keeps this up, or shows signs coming out of this that he's going to be a force at the plate the rest of the year, it won't be long before we see Baez in St. Louis.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow