Joan Baez

Joan Baez

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 3", Weight 188 lb.

• Born December 26, 1994 in San Cristobal, San Cristobal D.R.

BR Minors page

Biographical Information

Pitcher Joan Baez was signed by the Washington Nationals on April 25, 2014 as an international amateur free agent out of the Dominican Republic. His first professional stop was with the DSL Nationals that year and after going 4-1, 1.15 in 11 starts, and being named a mid-season All-Star, he was promoted to the GCL Nationals where he pitched 4 more games, going 1-3, 3.78.

He was with three different teams in 2015, including the GCL Nationals, the Auburn Doubledays of the New York-Penn League and the Hagerstown Suns of the South Atlantic League. He was very good at the lowest level, but struggled in the other two, finishing at 3-6, 4.73 in 17 games. He then spent all of 2016 with Hagerstown, making 27 starts and going 9-7, 3.94, as he seemed to be putting things together. In 2017, he started the year in the Carolina League with the Potomac Nationals but went on the disabled list in early June, then after a month went back to the Gulf Coast League for a rehabilitation assignment. It was there that he became a part of history on July 23rd as pitchers for the GCL Nationals pitched a no-hitter in both ends of a doubleheader against the GCL Marlins. Joan started the first game, pitching the first 6 innings before Jose Jimenez threw the final inning of a 4-0 shutout, and in the nitecap Jared Johnson and Gilberto Chu combined their efforts in a 1-0 shutout. He was 2-0, 1.47 in 4 games for the GCL Nationals, and 4-8, 3.87 in 17 starts for Potomac that year.

In 2018, he repeated the year at Potomac, and showed some improvement as he went 9-9, 3.79 in 25 games, pitching 123 1/3 innings and recording 101 strikeouts. In winter ball, he did well as a reliever for the Aguilas Cibaenas in the Dominican League, going 2-0, 2.57 in 12 games. That led the Nationals to move him to the bullpen in 2019, where he started the year with the AA Harrisburg Senators and eventually earned a promotion to the AAA Fresno Grizzlies. He was 4-3, 3.39 in 46 games, with 5 saves, and seemed close to the Show at that point, but the COVID-19 pandemic came at a wrong time for him, as it stopped whatever forward momentum he had been building. Thus, after another good winter league season with the Aguilas Cibaenas in 2019-2020, he was forced into inaction in 2020, and pitched just once the following winter in the Dominican League. When the minor leagues resumed play in 2021, he was felled by an injury in early June, after going 2-1, 9.87 in his first 7 games for the Rochester Red Wings of the International League. He was reactivated to make a couple of appearances with the FCL Nationals in mid-season, but never returned to AAA and was let go by the Nationals at the end of the season. He could not find another team to give him a look and his professional career ended with a whimper.

He is not to be confused with prominent (female) folk singer Joan Baez; their first names are pronounced differently.