Springfield manager Patrick Anderson rarely uses his iPad to watch replays in the dugout during the game. Last week at Riders Field in Frisco, Texas he made an exception.
Joshua Baez had absolutely crushed a letter-high fastball from RoughRiders’ lefty Kohl Drake – the ball left Baez’s bat at 114 mph, sailed over the In-Touch Home Run Terrace and the trees beyond the left field fence, and landed somewhere near the building across the street. Baez’s two-run shot – the game-winner in Springfield’s 3-1 win last Wednesday – traveled so far, the Trackman technology used to measure home run distance didn’t even guess.
“I couldn’t believe it when I saw it,” Anderson said. “It was a pitch that was 95 mph that was literally at his shoulders, or close, it was elevated…and when he hit it, when you could see it, besides just the video, it was ridiculous.”
Baez’s joins good company – only Jordan Walker’s 116 mph single on Opening Day and Willson Contreras’ 432-foot 3-run homer against Toronto on Tuesday registered higher exit velo for St. Louis this season, and Baez’s homer would rank inside the top 40 hardest hit balls in MLB in 2025.
“That was the hardest ball I’ve hit in a couple years,” Baez said. “114, I hit that ball in rookie ball, so it’s been four years – I was looking (fastball) and just barreled it up, it was crazy.”
Tuesday night at Hammons Field, Anderson didn’t need technology to do a Baez double-take.
OH MY JOSHUA BAEZ. His first Double-A homer leaves the bat at 114 MPH pic.twitter.com/dbegb70NdG
— Springfield Cardinals (@Sgf_Cardinals) June 5, 2025
Joshua belted a pair of home runs in the Cards’ 8-3 win over Tulsa on Tuesday, a solo-shot in the first inning that went back-to-back with Chase Davis, and a two-run bomb in the fifth. St. Louis’ second round pick in the 2021 MLB Draft is blossoming in his fifth professional season; he slashed .317/.404/.483 in 38 games with Peoria before earning the promotion to Double-A, and in 11 games in the Ozarks, Baez is batting .333 with a 1.000 OPS, 3 home runs and 11 runs batted in.
Baez has played 281 professional games but he’s still just 21 years old, and working with Cards’ roving coaches Bernard Gilkey and Ryan Ludwick, he’s become more comfortable by simplifying his approach.
“I had more downs than ups since when I first got drafted, but they (Gilkey & Ludwick) stayed with me and we just kept going, man,” Baez said. “It’s been a combination of just, going back to my true self, really not listening to people’s tips that they think work for everybody, going back to something that could work for me, what worked for me in high school. When you come into an (organization), there’s a lot of voices – all they want to do is help but taking what can help and dropping what doesn’t.
Baez was born in Boston but spent most of his childhood in the Dominican Republic, where baseball icons are everywhere, though Joshua’s passion for the sport was nurtured by his family.
“As a kid, I didn’t really watch much baseball, honestly. I was just watching TV and my mom just told me, ‘We’re going to the field’, and I’d (ask) her ‘why’?” Baez recalls. “The next day, I’d tell her ‘let’s go to the field’, and that’s kind of how it went.”
When he moved back to Massachusetts at age 11, Baez didn’t speak English well, but baseball helped him adjust quickly.
“Guys wanted to talk to me because I could hit the ball far, hit home runs, and throw the hardest. I could pitch too, I pitched all the way until my senior year, throwing 98 mph, it was fun.”
It didn’t dawn on Joshua that he’d be drafted until hoards of scouts started to follow him during his senior year at Dexter Southfield High School in Brookline. Baez recalls meeting directly with many MLB teams, except the one that drafted him.
“I didn’t talk to (the Cardinals), they didn’t go to Boston to see me hit…I think they saw me at an East Coast tournament in Alabama, so that was crazy how they picked me up in the draft, I was like ‘okay, let’s go!’”
Springfield (33-25) has the inside track to the first-half championship and playoff berth; the Cards lead the Texas League with 302 runs scored thanks to a potent lineup that includes first-round picks Davis and JJ Wetherholt – both accomplished collegiate hitters.
“You can see the toolset (with Baez), right? In a lot of showcases and stuff that he’s gone through. Going through the college grinds of playing against teams over and over again, he hasn’t gone through that…some of the experiences he’s learning now is what JJ has already gone through, it’s a different path,” Anderson said. “We’re trying to get both of those guys on track to whatever clicks for them…Josh has got to make some adjustments, and its going to be fun to be around that type of talent. He’s a big boy, he can throw it, he can run – it’s a lot of tools to like.”
