Did Cardinals Make Right Call With Nathan Church Replacement?

Báez is 22 years old and has been getting significant buzz since Spring Training. He entered the camp and made his case to get an early call to the majors. In Spring Training, he played in 10 games and slashed .333/.417/.762 with a 1.179, three homers, five RBIs, two walks and six runs scored. With left field completely up in the air at the time and the Cardinals talking about how they wanted right-handed pop, it only added fuel to the buzz around Báez. He arguably performed the best of the guys competing for left field, but the Cardinals sent him down to Triple-A to develop more.

Báez has carried over his hot spring to the regular season. He has played in 42 games for Triple-A Memphis and has 11 homers, 28 RBIs, 11 stolen bases and a .236/.319/.491 with an .810 OPS. 11 homers in 42 games would be a pace of 42 homers in 162 games. This kid can really hit and right now there is a clear opening in the big league outfield that won't be there for long.

Lars Nootbaar is on a minor league rehab assignment and will be back. It's unclear how long Church will be out, but Cardinals manager Oli Marmol said on Thursday that he's "a little beat up." That doesn't sound very serious. So, if that's the case, he'll likely be back at some point in the not-so-distant future as well.

Right now, Báez is getting everyday looks down in Triple-A. That's not something you want to mess up. You don't want to promote a prospect like him to come up and sit on the big league bench. Right now with Church and Nootbaar out, it would've been a good time to give Báez his first taste of consistent big league action until they returned. Torres will be good for the club. But it also would have been a good idea to give Báez a shot.