The Cardinals may be off Thursday, but the day matters plenty for one reason: Joshua Báez is now sitting right at the line that could shape how St. Louis handles him the rest of the way.
With the regular season ending Sept. 27, there are 45 days left on the 2026 schedule as of writing. That puts the league at a key cutoff for prospects. A player can still preserve rookie status for the 2027 season if he spends 45 days or fewer on a big league roster, unless he also reaches 130 at-bats or 50 innings pitched before the year is over.
That makes Báez a name to watch. The young outfielder has put together a strong Triple-A season, posting 33 home runs and 88 RBIs while trimming his strikeout rate over 102 games. Given that production, and with Lars Nootbaar no longer in town, Báez has done enough to push himself into the conversation for a call-up.
Still, don’t expect him to show up this weekend against the Chicago Cubs. Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that the club is expected to keep the same outfield group in place for the series at Wrigley.
“The Cardinals plan to start the series at Wrigley and this road trip with the same outfield group they had today,” Goold wrote. “Joshua Báez on the horizon but not immediate at 45-day mark.”
Earlier in the week, Cardinals president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom also addressed Báez directly, saying “his time is coming,” in reference to the outfielder.
The hesitation appears tied to the at-bat threshold. St.
Louis has 41 games left, and if Báez were active for every one of them and averaged three at-bats per game, he would land just under the 130-at-bat mark. But that math is messy in real life, because some games bring more trips to the plate and some bring fewer.
Waiting a few more days would make the decision cleaner. It would also help the Cardinals protect Báez’s rookie status for 2027, which matters because a future National League Rookie of the Year Award would bring St. Louis an extra draft pick.
So Báez remains on the doorstep. Not this weekend against the Cubs, maybe not instantly, but soon.
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