Joshua Báez sits against Pirates on Sunday

Báez’ home run was his seventh of the season. He hit a solo shot off Mason Adams in the second inning. Báez is now 8-for-21 (.380) with three home runs and six RBI over his last seven games. He’s hitting .229 with an .872 OPS and 15 RBI in his first taste of the major leagues. Báez’ tools are loud enough to put up with the strikeouts and low average.

Thank goodness we don’t get to miss out on Báez at Coors. He had sat in favor of Bryan Torres the last two times the Cardinals faced righties. Torres is still in the lineup tonight, but he’s playing second base over José Fermin.

Báez takes a seat against Dodgers workhorse Yoshinobu Yamamoto after blasting a solo homer off lefty Justin Wrobleski during Tuesday’s blowout win in Los Angeles. The 23-year-old top prospect has struck out just over 36 percent of the time, while also homering six times, in 63 plate appearances over 17 games since being called up last month. He’s a bit of an all-or-nothing fantasy contributor at this early stage of his big-league career. He’ll probably be back in there to face lefty ace Tarik Skubal Thursday’s series finale.

The third hit was a bunt that was popped up but wound up as a single anyway. Torres started in left field tonight after being held out of the lineup the previous three games. It seemed like he might be the favorite to start at second base against righties with Masyn Winn out and JJ Wetherholt sliding to short, for José Fermin has gotten the nod there the last two days. Torres is batting .268 with a .340 OBP this month. However, he hasn’t had an extra-base hit since doubling July 27 against the Cubs.

Baez is hitting .083 (3-for-36) with one homer, four RBI and two steals in 10 games since launching three homers in his sublime major-league debut earlier this month. He’s also struck out a whopping 16 times during that span. The 23-year-old projects as a streaky power hitter for fantasy purposes and he’s been mostly cold of late, which makes it challenging to keep him rostered in shallow mixed leagues.

It’s new news that Winn has a fracture. The Cardinals figure to play JJ Wetherholt at shortstop for now. Nolan Gorman was recalled to replace Winn, but he didn’t play any second base in the minors, suggesting that he’ll remain limited to third base. That’s probably bad news for Blaze Jordan. Bryan Torres, José Fermin and Ramón Urías figure to see time at second base.

Báez probably won’t be hit for often, but the Cardinals had Alec Burleson, who was getting a rare night off, replace him in the eighth. Báez homered off Jesús Luzardo in his first at-bat tonight to snap a 1-for-22 skid since he homered in his first three at-bats as a major leaguer. He has a fun .179/.273/.607 line to date.

Báez was on the bench for this one as he was 0-for-18 following his three-homer debut. He singled and walked while stealing two bases. Báez swiped 54 in the minors last year and had 21 at Triple-A this season before he was called up this past weekend. The strikeout rate will lead to a volatile performance from here on out, but expect the homers and steals to trickle in.

The prototypical hot-and-cold slugging prospect, Báez has gone 0-for-17 with seven strikeouts across four games since blasting three homers in his big-league debut last weekend. The 23-year-old top prospect isn’t exactly an all-or-nothing free-swinger, but he’s going to strike out at least a quarter of the time as he acclimates to everyday life in the majors. The central question for fantasy managers is whether he can do enough damage when he’s on a hot streak to justify riding out the cold spells. He’s one of the more intriguing long-term fantasy prospects in the game, but there might be some initial turbulence as he faces big-league arms for the first time.

Wetherholt is back at shortstop and leading off after sitting out the front-end of Monday’s twin bill at Great American Ball Park. The 23-year-old rookie sensation has struggled since last month’s All-Star break, hitting just .185 (20-for-108) with three homers and four steals in 29 games during that span. His return pushes electrifying top prospect Joshua Báez back to the fifth spot in the order for the nightcap affair.