Joshua Báez saw one Major League pitch and turned Wrigley Field into his personal highlight reel. Then he kept swinging like the rest of baseball owed him rent.
Three at-bats. Three home runs. Five RBIs. First player in MLB history to go yard three times in a debut. Not a tie. Not a technicality. The first. More than 23,000 men have put on a big-league uniform, and none of them opened like this. The Cardinals beat the Cubs 8-4 on Saturday, and the box score looks like fan fiction until you remember Statcast does not lie.
First pitch he ever saw: 93.4 mph fastball up in the zone from Matthew Boyd. Báez launched it 449 feet to dead center at 108.6 mph exit velocity. Two-run shot. 3-0 lead. Longest first-pitch, first-at-bat homer of the Statcast era. Third-longest debut homer since tracking started in 2006, behind only Jason Heyward and Aaron Judge. The kid smiled as he rounded the bases like he already knew the building belonged to him.
I know what the cautious crowd is about to type. One game. Sample size. Boyd hung a couple. Save it. Your favorite ESPN panel is already preparing the “let’s pump the brakes” segment, and that energy is already cooked.
History Did Not Whisper. It Got Punked.
Báez faced Boyd again in the third, worked a full count, and ripped a changeup 382 feet down the left-field line for a solo shot that put St. Louis back in front. That made him just the ninth player ever with multiple homers in a debut and only the second since 1900 to go deep in each of his first two career at-bats in the same game. Bob Nieman did it in 1951. Then Báez joined him and immediately left him in the dust.
Sixth inning. Boyd again. Opposite-field laser, 99.8 mph off the bat, 368 feet to right. Two more runs. Three homers in three at-bats. First time anyone has ever done it. Previous earliest three-homer game in a career came in somebody’s 10th game. Twice. Báez did it before he had a fourth plate appearance.
“I was just really glad that the ball went over the wall,” Báez said. “I had no idea. So I just started running, and then I seen that it went over and I was like, ‘This is insane.'”
Insane is the correct word. By the eighth, Wrigley stood for him. Even the home crowd wanted four. Colin Rea had to cup his ear to hear PitchCom over the noise. Báez lined out, and they still applauded. That is not polite baseball etiquette. That is a building recognizing it just watched something that will be in the record books forever.
Oliver Marmol saw it coming. Hours before first pitch he said of his No. 3 prospect, “It doesn’t quietly whisper. It screams at you when you watch this kid for any length of time.” After the second and third bombs, the manager dropped the filter: “The second and third is just, holy [crap].”
Correct again.
The Calm Smile Is the Scariest Part
Here is what separates this from every other viral debut you will forget by Tuesday. Báez looked like he belonged before the first swing left the bat. “I was pretty much calm,” he said. “Just being able to carry it to the game, I feel like that was the key thing for me.” Marmol clocked the grin as Báez hit the dugout after homer one: “There’s a calmness and a smile to, ‘I’m here.’ That was pretty cool to be a part of.”
That is not nerves wearing off. That is a 23-year-old who spent five years in the system, mashed 34 homers at Triple-A Memphis this year, stole 21 bases, posted a .901 OPS, and decided the big leagues were just the next stop on a promise he already made.
His late father’s dream was to play in the majors. Báez’s only promise to him was that he would get there. A bee sat on his brim all afternoon. Báez took it as a sign. “I just know that he’s super proud and that he’s here with me right now in spirit.” Thirty family members and friends were in the stands. The rain did not matter. The moment did.
Drafted in the second round out of high school in 2021. Six-three, 220, right-handed thunder with a 60-grade arm and power that already graded as plus. Cardinals were 61-61 and 3.5 out of a wild-card spot when they called him up. They needed a jolt. They got a detonation.
“It’s just unreal,” Báez said. “For me to not only get a hit, but hit three home runs is just crazy.”
Crazy is underselling it. This was not a debut. This was a hostile takeover of the record book in an afternoon. The soft takes will tell you to wait and see. I watched the swings. I read the quotes. I saw the smile. The wait is over. The kid already announced the new order.
Tell me with a straight face that Joshua Báez is not the most electric player in the National League right now. Go ahead. I’ll wait.
