Wasting Luken Baker’s potential mashing abilities would be a mistake for Cardinals

Turn him loose before he crushes 30 for another team.

Dear Luken Baker,

I regret to inform you that all that you’ve done this year for the Memphis Redbirds still isn’t good enough for at-bats at the Major League Level. Your application for MLB employment this summer is still on hold, but we have a nice brand new line of Redbirds hats for you to choose from while you wait. Normally, a team stuck in an average baseball-playing doldrum would be tickled red to bring up a slugging fella like yourself, but the St. Louis Cardinals are too beholden to the past in order to cut ties with it. Maybe you haven’t been paying attention, but Paul Goldschmidt is really killing it… every other series or week.

You have smashed 32 home runs this year, which is your fourth consecutive minor league season with at least 20 home runs. You have also drawn 67 walks, which is an impressive total and has boosted your equally impressive .345 on-base percentage. You’ve accumulated more walks with each season at Memphis, lessening your strikeouts and improving your mashing abilities all while waiting for a real shot. In short, you’ve done your job.

2023 wasn’t a real shot. In your case, it’s 86 at-bats that closed your case. When you are more of a pinch hitting threat than a starter, the team doesn’t believe in you enough to give you 4-12 at-bats in a series. Again, they love them some veteran leadership up here in St. Louis. Oh, there’s also a third wildcard spot that would only take a big streak from the Cardinals and a bad streak from three other teams to make palpable.

For that sad reason, your mashing abilities are still somehow deemed unfit for a Major League call-up. You know what they say, Luken? Experience is what you don’t get until it’s too late with the Cardinals, and then they trade you somewhere else to thrive. Just ask Tyler O’Neill, Dylan Carlson, Randy Arozarena, Adolis Garcia, and the rest of the fine gents on that laundry list of *much better* luck elsewhere.

That’s all it took for the Cardinals to open and close the book on your baseball baking abilities. In a season where Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado have taken a swan dive off their normal peak of production, your mashing can’t catch a break. The Cardinals called for Jordan Walker last week, but only to platoon against lefties, an assignment tailored for you. Things are in such disarray around Busch Stadium lately that they regretfully bypassed the fact that you destroy lefties better than Walker.

Even a platoon assignment doesn’t carry enough wings for a Bird officer to sign off on, because that team is hard-headed like a decent portion of their fanbase. The same people who blast the team for not playing their young guys or hitters who are flourishing down at Memphis think those notorious 86 at-bats are enough to know everything about you. It’s a shame, because their MLB coaching experience matches the amount that Mike Matheny had when he took over the manager job. So much has gone right and worked out for the Cardinals since then… it almost makes you wonder who’s making decisions up top: Bill, his son, the nephew, someone, etc.

The decision to call you up is seemingly simple, but still not blunt enough to pull off. It’s not as easy as giving two roster spots to going nowhere vets like Brandon Crawford and Matt Carpenter. You may have to hit 10 more home runs before the end of the month to prove your worth before the Memphis season concludes.

Next year would seem to be your time, but DeWitt Jr. likes his (fading) stars more than most owners, so you could be battling old Goldy next summer again. That is if the team doesn’t ship you out over the offseason in a move that will cause the same fans who want you to stay down in Memphis to suddenly be outraged that you were flipped for a middle reliever. It’s what it is at this point.

Keep swinging. Sooner or later, the team that every front office in baseball knows is flailing will catch on and give you a shot. The Cardinals like to seem like prospects are their jam. It’s too bad that hasn’t been the case for a long time.

Mr. Baker, I am sorry.

Your new #1 fan, Dan Buffa