{"id":373686,"date":"2025-12-26T20:34:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T20:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/373686\/"},"modified":"2025-12-26T20:34:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T20:34:11","slug":"diamondbacks-sign-former-cardinals-dodgers-slugger-to-free-agent-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/373686\/","title":{"rendered":"Diamondbacks sign former Cardinals, Dodgers slugger to free agent contract"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/mlb\/arizona-diamondbacks\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Arizona Diamondbacks<\/a> have brought aboard a first baseman with great minor league power numbers and a bit of MLB experience.<\/p>\n<p>Their new signing has previously played for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/mlb\/st-louis-cardinals\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">St. Louis Cardinals<\/a> in the majors, and in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/mlb\/los-angeles-dodgers\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Los Angeles Dodgers<\/a>&#8216; minor league system.<\/p>\n<p>The new guy is Luken Baker, with the deal <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/AramLeighton8\/status\/2004576749498347815\" rel=\"nofollow\">reported by Aram Leighton<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Baker spent the final two months of the 2025 season in the Dodgers&#8217; system after they claimed him on waivers in August.<\/p>\n<p>Before that, he had been with the Cardinals since being a second-round draft pick by St. Louis in 2018.<\/p>\n<p>MORE:\u00a0<a target=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/mlb\/news\/team-usa-projected-wbc-lineup-bryce-harper-news\/8f6511f6d5033b252b594217\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Team USA&#8217;s projected WBC lineup is incredible<\/a><\/p>\n<p>He has played in 73 career MLB games, hitting four home runs.<\/p>\n<p>Baker, who will be 29 in the season ahead, has a strong minor league track record.<\/p>\n<p>In 2023 at Triple-A Memphis, Baker hit .334 and had 33 home runs in just 380 plate appearances.<\/p>\n<p>He had 32 home runs in 2024 back at Memphis.<\/p>\n<p>In 2025, Baker&#8217;s Triple-A numbers including just 18 home runs, but his .441 slugging percentage was still solid.<\/p>\n<p>He seems most likely to start the season ahead at Triple-A Reno, but there surely will be a chance to earn a spot if he rakes in the spring.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Pavin Smith is a lefty hitter for the Diamondbacks at first base, so Baker could work as a platoon partner if he proves capable.<\/p>\n<p>More MLB news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Arizona Diamondbacks have brought aboard a first baseman with great minor league power numbers and a bit&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373687,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-373686","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}