Utilityman Darren Baker, one of the most beloved Rochester Red Wing of the Washington Nationals era, is heading to the big leagues for the first time.
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According to multiple reports, the 25-year-old will join the Nationals on Sunday when Major League rosters expand for September.
Although best known to many baseball fans as the son of legendary player and manager Dusty Baker and as the batboy subject of J.T. Snow‘s infamous rescue during the 2002 World Series, Darren has proven himself in professional baseball since being drafted in the 10th round of the 2021 draft.
A 2022 selection to the All-Star Futures Game, Baker joined the Red Wings in 2023 and instantly became a fan favorite, winning Most Popular Player in the year-end fan vote after hitting .273 with 19 stolen bases despite missing some time with injury. Entering Saturday, his 2024 campaign has been even better, with Baker entering Saturday with a .285 batting average, 20 doubles, and 38 stolen bases (second-best in the International League). Along the way, the natural second baseman has transitioned into a utility role, seeing large amounts of action in the outfield, including 45 games in left field this season.
Baker is just the latest Red Wing to head to the big club: top prospect Dylan Crews got the call last week.
Wings have sent several decent bats to Washington this season. Many sports wags have been talking about the Gnats being a real team of the future. Unless they get some pitching don’t hold your breath guys. I can only wonder how good the Red Wings might have been this season had they had even modest pitching. But the pitching has sunk this team…all season long it has been consistently terrible. No nice way to put it. An occasional blip but several of the split series should have been wins, except the pitching collapsed over the final 3 games.
No organization is perfect, granted. But if you are a true Red Wings fan, your patience has disappeared long ago, trying to cheer for a winning team in this city.
We are left having to simply ‘feel good’ when we send a player up to the big leagues. That has become the AAA ‘standard’ these days. Who cares about winning down here. (well, some of us still do but we are getting harder and harder to find.