Who is he and where did he come from?
He’s Nate Baez and he comes from Oro Valley, Arizona. Oro Valley looks like this:
…so I can only assume that baseball is Baez’s second career after robbing stagecoaches didn’t work out.
The Red Sox just acquired him from the Twins organization in exchange for Triston Gray — whose entire tenure with the Red Sox lasted all of two months in the middle of the offseason, and who will not be the next Romy Gonzalez after all.
What position does he play?
Baez was known for his defensive versatility in college at Arizona State, where he played every single position except for shortstop, center field, and right field. In the pros he’s split his time between catcher and first base.
He’s better than you, but his professional destiny is probably that of an organizational catcher who might get a cup of coffee in the big leagues one day.
The 24-year-oldBaez reached AA for the first time in his career this past season, where he hit .237/.297/.400 with 5 homers in 51 games. The best part of his offensive game is probably his patience and batting eye. At the time of his promotion to AA last year, he was rocking a 17.4% walk rate in the single-A Midwest league, which would have been the second-best walk rate in the league had he qualified. But some statistical inflation is to be expected with players who are old for their level, and that rate dropped down to 6.1% in AA.
There isn’t much of a scouting report on him as a catcher yet, as, frankly, he hasn’t spent much time as a catcher. Since being drafted in 2022, he’s started a grand total of 110 games behind the plate, after catching just 46 games at Arizona State. But he did throw out 14 of 47 would-be base-stealers at AA last season, which is a pretty solid return for someone who doesn’t have much experience behind the plate.
Show me a cool highlight.
Though he’s only 25 total homers over 229 career minor leage games, Baez actually had two multi-homer games in 2024 alone. Here’s the second:
What’s he doing in his picture up there?
Getting ready to play third, because he heard the Sox might have an opening there…
What’s his role on the 2026 Red Sox?
While he’ll be at Spring Training, Baez is not currently on the 40-man roster and almost certainly will not have a role on the 2026 Red Sox. In fact, the primary motivation in the Gray-Baez swap was opening up a spot on the 40-man roster for Ranger Suárez. So in light of the fact that Craig Breslow managed to get some value in a situation in which he would have otherwise needed to DFA someone for nothing, it was a good deal, even if Baez never makes it to the big leagues. And who knows — catcher is the most demanding position and one that takes years to master, and Baez has effectively just begun his journey behind the plate. Maybe he’ll improve quickly and turn into a plus defensive player with a chance to have a career as a glove-first guy.
