Baker was a second-round pick for the Cardinals in the 2018 draft and spent most of his career in the St. Louis organization before being claimed off waivers by the Dodgers in early August. Baker never saw any MLB playing time in Los Angeles, so his big league resume remains his 73 games played with the Cardinals in the 2023-25 seasons, with a .206/.317/.338 slash line and four home runs for 189 plate appearances.
This lack of production didn’t exactly merit more playing time, yet Baker was also blocked to some degree by the presence of Paul Goudschmidt, Willson Contreras, Alec Burlesonand others at first base. Baker is limited by his lack of defensive versatility, having only played first base and DH during his pro career. This made him an expendable piece, even on a Cardinals team that is in the midst of a rebuild as Baker enters his age-29 season.
Baker got his first call up to the Majors after a huge season with Triple-A Memphis in 2023, when he hit .334/.439/.720 with 33 home runs over 380 PA. He followed that year with a 32 home run campaign and a smaller (.231/.345/.535) slash line at Memphis in 2024, but his numbers continued to decline as Baker hit just .223/.335/.441 with 18 home runs over 409 combined PA with top affiliates the Cardinals and Dodgers in 2025. While Baker’s numbers improved significantly afterward after moving from Memphis to Oklahoma City, this may have had less to do with a change of scenery and more to do with the move to the pitcher-friendly Pacific Coast League.
The Diamondbacks’ Triple-A Reno club is also in the PCL, so it wouldn’t be a shock if Baker posts some numbers in 2026 that look pretty gaudy on paper. There’s no risk for the Snakes considering what Baker can do at least in depth, and whether he can parlay his raw power into any kind of consistent production at the big league level. In terms of the MLB roster, the right-handed Baker could be a match in a platoon situation with the left-swinging Pavin Smith at first base and DH, and the D’Backs may hope Baker can follow Smith’s example as a late bloomer who didn’t break into the majors until he was 20.
Signing Baker to a non-guaranteed deal shouldn’t stop the D’Backs from exploring more prominent right-handed bats for this role, such as former Arizona star Paul Goldschmidt. The Diamondbacks’ on-field situation overall remains in some state of flux as rumors continue to swirl about it Kettle Marte could be traded, and what the D’Backs could be a dark horse fan for Alex Bregman. Such moves wouldn’t necessarily impact the first base role unless potentially another first base candidate or a right-handed bat were brought on board as part of a Marte trade package.
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