Despite the Cardinals demoting their red-hot prospect to the Minors on Monday, it’s less of a ‘Goodbye‘ and more of a ‘See you this Summer‘ for Joshua Baez

By Ryan K Boman | March 10, 2026

On March 9, the St. Louis Cardinals sent four players down to Triple-A from their Spring camp. One was a name that may have surprised Redbird rooters based on recent events: 22-year-old Joshua Baez, who has flexed some muscle at the plate during the exhibition season.

The right-handed hitting outfielder hit home runs in three consecutive games and had both fans and media talking as the season grew near. There was plenty of speculation that he could make the team’s Opening Day roster before Monday’s move.

However, despite the Cardinals demoting their red-hot prospect, it’s less of a ‘Goodbye‘ and more of a ‘See you this Summer‘ for Baez. There’s no doubt he will see some time in MLB in 2026, especially if he’s putting up big numbers and any member of the Cardinals’ outfield suffers from injuries or inconsistency.

Coming into the 2025 season, Baez was unranked on MLB Pipeline’s list of the St. Louis organization’s top prospects. Now, he’s ranked number four, behind only infielder JJ Wetherholt, pitcher Liam Doyle, and catcher Raniel Rodriguez, respectively.

Despite the recent hype, Baez hasn’t been an overnight success, however. The 6’3″, 220-pounder was a second-round selection by the Cardinals in the 2021 Major League Baseball Draft, after a stellar prep career in the Boston area, where he was named the Massachusetts Gatorade Baseball Player of the Year in 2020.

After being sidelined with a wrist injury in his first pro season, Baez progressed slowly before breaking out a year ago. He hit .287, with 20 homers, 79 RBI, and 54 steals across 117 games at High-A and Double-A. He looks to be a big part of the Cardinals’ current rebuilding process.

Baez will be back

Despite Baez’s Spring surge, a few reasons put into context why the Redbirds and GM Chaim Bloom chose to make this move. Firstly, the youngster has limited experience beyond Class-A baseball; he has only played 79 games at Double-A and has zero experience at Triple-A. The prevailing attitude in MLB is that a player needs that extra seasoning at the highest level of the farm system to be more prepared for the leap to The Show.

He also has options available, and the Cards probably see him as a player they may need to shuttle more than once during the course of the 2026 campaign. Nothing is set in stone with this current roster, and he could be pressed into duty.

More importantly, especially in Baez’s case, playing every day in Memphis will help his growth much more than sitting on the bench in St. Louis. It also delays the start of his ‘clock’ when it comes to his MLB service time – something the team wants to hold back for as long as they can.

That doesn’t discount anything that the rising star has revealed to the world down in the Grapefruit League this month. He’s now clearly established himself as one of the better prospects in baseball in 2026 and a potential All-Star player somewhere down the road.

In many ways, this isn’t really a setback for Joshua Baez and shouldn’t be viewed that way by the fans. It’s more of a ‘Just hang out here, and we’ll come back for you‘ message from the team. He has to realize his time to take the field at Busch Stadium is part of his diamond destiny now… and it’s coming very soon.

Ryan K Boman is a writer for Sports Illustrated and the author of the 2023 book, Pop Music & Peanut Butter: A Collection of Essays Looking at Life with Laughter & Love.
His previous work has appeared at MSN, Yahoo! Sports, the Sporting News, Heavy, and the Miami Herald. Follow him on X @RyanKBoman