Ahead of the Washington Nationals facing the Chicago Cubs, fans will see a familiar name as they are expected to call up Darren Baker, son of former Nationals manager Dusty Baker, according to Spencer Nusbaum of The Washington Post. He has been with the Triple-A affiliate team in Rochester where he has had an impressive August as mentioned by Nusbaum on his X, formerly Twitter, account.
“Baker is hitting .285 this season, but was red-hot in August, hitting .337 with an .804 OPS this month,” Nusbaum wrote. “Contact & glove-first player who has mostly played 2B and LF.”
Being a 10th round pick, people know Darren Baker more than his actual baseball skills as he is widely known for the popular video from the 2002 World Series where he was a bat boy and almost involved in a key play before being swooped away to safety.
Darren Baker speaks on traits he's taking to the Nationals
Fast forward 20 years, Baker has been called up with the Nationals as he was a 10th round pick in the 2021 MLB Draft, he was involved in their spring training where he described how baseball means to him according to MLB.com.
“That’s my personality a little bit by nature,” Baker said. “Baseball is fun. I do take it seriously as a job. But if you don’t enjoy what you are doing, it means nothing.”
Entering in the 2024 season, Baker was the No. 25 prospect per the MLB pipeline as he's been impressing in the minor leagues where he spoke highly about his traits in hitting and the aspects his legendary father has taught him.
“[Hitting] has been a skill of mine for a while. I have been blessed [when it comes to hand-eye coordination],” Baker said. “My dad just stressed to put the ball in play. It gives the team an opportunity [to score runs]. Even if I get on by an error, it helps my team.”
Darren Baker and the relationship with his father
It was a different preparation routine for spring training with him since ever being drafted by the Nationals. Subsequently, he would get to room with his father Dusty Baker since he was the manager of the Houston Astros before he retired and the two teams share the same facility per MLB.com.
“This was the time of the year where we bonded together. … He is probably sad about it with a combination of retiring. I definitely miss him,” Baker said. “Me and my dad have an interesting relationship. He is like a best friend to me. I respect him as my father figure. I don’t see him that way. We connect and we share a lot of the same interests. I’m just going to miss seeing him every day after the game. It’s really the stuff away from baseball like fishing that I will miss the most.”
It remains to be seen when Darren Baker will make his debut with the Nationals, but looking at the team, they are 61-74 which puts them second to last in the NL East.
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