{"id":680425,"date":"2026-04-21T15:58:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T15:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/680425\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T15:58:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T15:58:07","slug":"diamondbacks-send-former-cardinals-33-home-run-minor-league-slugger-to-triple-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/680425\/","title":{"rendered":"Diamondbacks send former Cardinals 33 home run minor league slugger to Triple-A"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By activating outfielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. from the injured list, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/mlb\/arizona-diamondbacks\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Arizona Diamondbacks<\/a> had to make room on the roster.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>This past weekend, they <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/player\/luken-baker-663609\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">designated a 29-year-old first baseman for assignment<\/a>. He made his Major League debut in 2023 with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/mlb\/st-louis-cardinals\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">St. Louis Cardinals<\/a> and has yet to land a full-time role in the Majors despite having above-average power.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Now, the D-Backs have sent <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=baker-002luk\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Luken Baker<\/a> outright to Triple-A Reno. If Baker chooses, he can deny the assignment and elect free agency.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Baker has four career home runs in 194 trips to the plate with the Cardinals and D-Backs. He collected one hit and struck out three times in five plate appearances during his short stint with Arizona.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Maybe Baker needs more playing time to prove his worth in the Majors, as he&#8217;s never played more than 33 games in a season.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>More:\u00a0<a target=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/mlb\/atlanta-braves\/news\/braves-predicted-trade-bryce-elder-top-prospect-shohei-ohtanis-5m-game-changing-teammate\/38a100882f15492e4df1c03f\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Braves predicted to trade Bryce Elder for Lars Nootbaar<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Triple-A pitching seems to be no problem for him, as the 6-foot-4, 285-pound slugger had back-to-back seasons with 32 or more home runs from 2023-24.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Don&#8217;t be surprised if another team gives Baker a chance if he elects free agency. Every lineup needs a little pop in case of injury.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>More MLB news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By activating outfielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. from the injured list, the Arizona Diamondbacks had to make room on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":494640,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2404],"tags":[146,22,4314,5,38,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-680425","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arizona-diamondbacks","8":"tag-arizona","9":"tag-arizona-diamondbacks","10":"tag-arizonadiamondbacks","11":"tag-baseball","12":"tag-diamondbacks","13":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116443526154061074","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=680425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680425\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=680425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=680425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=680425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}