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All American Game | Story | 11/9/2020

Boston's Baez lives for the summer

Jeff Dahn

Photo: Joshua Baez (Perfect Game)

During his three-year Perfect Game WWBA career, Joshua Baez was an all-tournament selection seven times while playing with six different travel ball programs. A Boston native, Baez was also named the Most Valuable Player at the 2019 WWBA Upperclass Southeast Labor Day Classic in Marietta, Ga., playing with the event champion Beast Mode Prime 2021.

It’s certainly not uncommon for a high-profile prospect to perform at the top of his game in the most high-profile moments, and Baez rose to the occasion time and again when called upon. That can be said for his showcase experiences, as well, but there was just something special about getting out on the road during the travel ball season, even through what was a very challenging 2020 campaign.

“I’ve always looked forward to the summer; the summer is kind of like the best time for me,” Baez told PG during a recent telephone conversation, speaking from his home in Boston.

“I love doing Perfect Game events,” he said. “I started doing them my freshman year and I love them because they keep track of everything … and they’re organized so well. With the pool games and the playoffs and things like that, it’s just really fun.”

In Baez’s case, it’s been both really fun and really rewarding. The 6-foot-3, 220-pound, right-handed hitting outfielder has developed into a top-5 national prospect in the class of 2021; a PG All-American and Vanderbilt commit who, just four months past his 17^th birthday, might have the highest ceiling of anyone in the 2021 class. It’s been somewhat of a circuitous journey, but here he is, standing tall amongst his peers.

Baez was born in Boston but the family moved to the Dominican Republic when he was quite young. It was while he was in the D.R. that he first began playing baseball and when he returned to Boston with his mom, Yris, as an 11-year-old, his game really began to blossom.

He is now well into his senior year at Dexter Southfield High School in Brookline, Mass., which sits only about five miles southwest of downtown Boston. He is able to experience in-person learning during the COVID-19 pandemic but is required to wear a mask and following strict social-distancing rules.

Despite the restrictions, Baez continues to train with his high school teammates as often as possible in terms of getting work in at the cages and in the weight room in anticipation of a 2021 prep season. His 2020 spring season at Dexter Southfield was cancelled by the pandemic, of course, but the hard work he put in during the months-long lock-down paid off handsomely.

He has suited up for Team Nike New England, the Boston Blue Jays, Beast Mode Prime 2021, North East Baseball and the Ohio Warhawks throughout his PG career. In 23 WWBA tournament games in 2020 with the Prime 2021, the Blue Jays and the Warhawks, Baez slashed .347/.475./.653 with nine extra base hits (2 HRs), 13 RBI, 14 runs scored and 10 stolen bases, very similar to the numbers he posted in 19 games in 2019.

Baez also spent the last three years advancing his game on the PG showcase circuit, earning Rawlings Top Prospect List honors at both the 14u Northeast Showcase and the 14u National Showcase in 2018; his invitation to the PG All-American Classic made him a TPL performer at the National Showcase in Hoover, Ala., in June. He has also performed at the East Coast Pro Showcase and the Area Code Games during his career.

A showcase, to Baez’s way of thinking, is exactly that; it’s right there in the word “showcase”. Each prospect is given the opportunity to run, throw and hit during the workouts and then show off his combined skills during showcase games.

When Baez made his PG debut at the 14u Northeast Showcase in Staten Island, N.Y., in May 2018, he was listed at 6-foot-2, 180-pounds. Fast-forward two years to the 2020 National Showcase held in Hoover, Ala., in June, Baez – who had just turned 17 weeks earlier – came in at 6-3, 220, an increase of one inch in height and 40 pounds of added muscle.

He ran a 6.81-second 60, threw 83 mph from the outfield and delivered an 80 mph fastball at the 14u event in 2018. At this year’s PG National he ran a 6.67 60, threw 97 from the outfield and upped his fastball velo to 94; he threw a 97 mph fastball at the PG 18u South World Series in July.

“I’ve been really happy with the results I’ve been getting these last couple of years with my hard work,” Baez said. “I’ve been weight-lifting since my freshman year and during the winter and the offseason I’ve been lifting five to six days a week and eating a lot; nutrition is the biggest part of it.”

Baez’s scouting report from the PG National noted that Baez “has a physically advanced build with present strength and surprising looseness and twitch” who “attacks the ball with authority in the outfield.” It also called him an “outstanding young athlete with strength who will continue to improve with repetitions and experience.”

There is no argument that Baez comes from the mold of a five-tool ballplayer with his live bat, live arm, quick hands and feet and 6.7-second speed. When asked what he feels his top tool is, Baez thought about it briefly before answering.

“I love my bat; I’m able to get on base, steal bags,” he finally offered. “A single is like a triple for me and a home run is just about catching barrels and having fun. I can do the job with situational hitting – just move guys over and score a run with an RBI. If you ask me to do something I’ll do my best to execute it.”

With a 97 mph fastball and a serviceable curveball and slider, Baez is looked upon as a two-way prospect but he countered that by saying that he pitches for fun and has only been used sporadically as a closer; he thinks it’s unlikely he’ll pitch at Vanderbilt.

The person who Baez identifies as his mentor is Christian Ortiz, the head baseball coach at Snowden International HS in Boston and the founder/director of the Next Level Boston Sports-Boston Blue Jays program. Ortiz has been coaching Baez on various travel ball teams since Baez was 13 years old and he’s has had a profound impact on the young player.

“He’s been the guy who’s taken care of me on the field and off the field,” Baez said. “He’s been a big part in my development … so I appreciate him a lot.”

The feeling is mutual:

“I’ve seen him hit balls that I don’t even know if they’ve landed,” Ortiz told The Boston Globe in an article published online in June. “Josh is the kid who always asks, ‘What can I do better?’ He’s hungry and he loves the game.”

Ortiz told The Globe that he and Baez frequently watch hitting videos of Mike Trout, Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton and then spend time dissecting their swings.

“We see those guys and we say let’s try to see what they do and let’s get to that,” Ortiz said. “Josh has the speed. He has the power. Defensively, he’s there. He’s got the arm strength. He wants to be the best and get to that level where he can compete with the top guys.”

Baez has reached that level and he’s enjoyed the exposure he received at those PG tournaments and showcases, a direct result of so many top prospects taking the field at the same time. A coach or scout may decide to attend a game with the idea of watching one particular player perform and then is treated to a smorgasbord of talent on the field. Baez called it a “win-win” for everyone involved.

The production of class-by-class prospect rankings is among the most important elements of what PG does, and while input for those rankings comes from a variety of sources, nothing weighs more heavily than the observations recorded by the talented members of the PG scouting department.

Baez passed that eye-test almost without fail over the last three years, and after breaking into the top-100 of the 2021 rankings at No. 95 in October 2019, he has climbed all the way to No. 5 in the most recent update (No. 1 outfielder); Baez has been the either the No. 1 or No. 2-ranked prospect in Massachusetts his entire PG career.

By being recognized as a top-5 player nationally, Baez feels both honored and humbled. The rankings, he said, definitely mean something to him but at the same time he has never really been the type of player who compares himself with the other players he’s surrounded himself with.

He chooses instead to compete internally and while acknowledging that there are thousands of really talented players all around the world, trying to compare himself to every one of them would drive him crazy – there’s too many of them out there, for crying out loud.

“I just try to be the best version of myself and I just try to compete with myself,” Baez said. “When you put that out on the field, I feel like it shows all the hard work (you’ve put in). To be ranked so high is pretty cool and it feels really good.”

And speaking of all those scouts that gather in great numbers at every high-profile PG event, Baez told PG he’s been able to block-out most of the background noise.

“When I’m playing baseball I only focus on what happens between the lines,” he said. “Everything else outside the lines, I don’t really pay much attention to it. I’m in the middle of a game and I have a job to do and I have teammates to support and that’s what I’m focused on.”

Receiving an invitation to the PG All-American Classic in Oklahoma City in September had been a dream of Baez’s since he first watched the game on TV as a high school freshman.

That dream became reality in July, when Baez became just the sixth Massachusetts prep to be selected for the game and the first since Mike Vasil in 2017. Fellow Vanderbilt commits Tyler Beede (2010) – now a Giants farmhand – and Rhett Wiseman (2011) are also on that short list.

“I was so humbled and so honored to be selected,” Baez said. “We got down to Oklahoma and it was just the best experience I’ve had in my career. They treated us like kings; they took care of everything. The little things turned into big things and we just had a great time; it turned out to be a blast.”

Baez was being courted by a large number of schools during the recruiting process but Vanderbilt had always been his choice from both an athletic and academic perspective. He took his official visit to Nashville in the fall of 2019 and when head coach Tim Corbin offered him a scholarship, he verbally committed on the spot.

“Something just clicked and I just felt like that was the place for me after meeting all the coaches; I was just treated so good and I just really liked the coaches,” Baez said. “Tim Corbin has a lot of experience … and he’s the one that built Vanderbilt. He’s had a lot of great (players) come out of there and I’m just trying to be the next one.”

He also told PG that what he most respects about the Vanderbilt program is the diversity of the team’s roster. It is truly a national program with players coming in from across the country who have different backgrounds and different life experiences.

“We'll all just meet in Nashville and we’re just a great team with a great bond,” Baez said. “I feel like when you have people from only one area you’re kind of limited with ideas and opinions. When you have people from all over the country, it’s just more open.”

Joshua Baez put in the work and the preparation and made sure to pay attention to even the smallest details while rising to the top of his class. He’s been an MVP, collected all-tournament and top prospect list recognition and positioned himself nicely in terms of the 2021 MLB June Amateur Draft.

But that’s not really his thing, at least not at this moment in time. The brutal lesson that everyone has learned over the last nine months is that circumstances and situations can change in a hurry but, for now anyway, Baez has a plan in mind.

“What I’m focused on right now is developing to play a spring season with my high school team and then just go to Vandy; that’s honestly what I want to do.

“I have two goals: I want to win a College World Series and I want to win a Major League World Series one day. If I have the chance to do both, then I will.”

It would be foolish to count-out the kid from Boston, the one who lives for a summer filled with baseball games.

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