Rookie Joshua Baez’s 3-Homer Debut Is Truly Unprecedented

Why the Cardinals called up Joshua Baez

The Cardinals are in their rebuilding phase, and were nine games over .500 in mid-June, but a recent slide sent them towards .500 and within a few games of the wild card.

The rebuild has netted success stories like rookie JJ Weatherholt, a revived Jordan Walker and a powerful performance from Alec Burleson, who has five of his 20 homers in games I’ve written the wire service story of, including a three-homer game at Yankee Stadium on Aug. 3 – the same day the Cardinals opted to keep the first baseman at the trade deadline.

Baez, on the verge of getting called up, was the third-best prospect for St. Louis according to MLB.com.

A former second-round selection in 2021, Baez gained notice with 20 homers and a .287 average at High-A and Double-A last year. Elevated to Triple-A, Baez was up to 34 homers and 90 RBIs in Memphis, and in need of another young spark, those power and run production numbers were hard to ignore for the Cardinals.

Who are the youngest players with a three-homer game?

At 23 years and 49 days, Baez is amongst the youngest with a three-homer, but it might not be as few as you think.

There have been 33 three-homer games by players younger than Baez. The youngest is Al Kaline, who was 20 years, 119 days when he homered three times against the Kansas City A’s in a 16-0 rout by the Tigers on April 17, 1955.

Reggie Jackson was 23 years, 45 days when he slugged three solo homers for the A’s against the Seattle Pilots on July 2, 1969.

Baez is not even the youngest current player with a three-homer performance.

Among active players, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit two of his three homers off Gerrit Cole at Yankee Stadium at 23 years, 28 days on April 13, 2022, after doing so against Washington at 22 years, 42 days on April 27, 2021.

On June 25, Junior Caminero hit three homers for the Rays against the Kansas City Royals, and he was 22 years, 355 days.

Going back even further, Yordan Alvarez and Bryce Harper were younger when they had three-homer games.

Alvarez was 22 years, 44 days when he homered three times and drove in seven runs during Houston’s 23-2 rout at Baltimore on Aug. 10, 2019. Harper was 22 years, 202 days when he hit three homers for Washington in a 7-5 win over the Marlins on May 6, 2015.

One game hardly portends a career. A little over 10 years ago, it was unknown if Aaron Judge would become a star for the Yankees when he hit a 446-foot homer in his debut, a day after Alex Rodriguez’s emotional final game.

What a game like this does is gives a team a further reason for optimism a top prospect will pan out at this level.