Nate Baez has no hamate bones left to break anymore

CEDAR RAPIDS - It’s all in the way you look at it.

Nate Baez of the Cedar Rapids Kernels broke the hamate bone in his left hand while he was playing college baseball at Arizona State. He broke the hamate bone in his right hand at the end of minor league spring training last year.

That’s a lot of missed playing time because of a couple of unlucky breaks, pun intended. But Baez figures things thusly.

“I can’t do it again,” he said, after the Kernels beat Peoria, 6-0, on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon at Veterans Memorial Stadium.

He’s exactly right. They surgically remove the hamate, if you didn’t know, which is a hooked-shaped bone at the bottom of the hand near the wrist.

You break it through repetitive motions such as swinging a bat.

“Injuries are never a good thing, but it is what it is,” Baez said. “You just kind of have to accept it and go on. Take the time out, come back and do my best when I was back ... They were a long few months.”

Mostly a catcher, Baez didn’t play any games last season until late July. A 12th-round draft pick of the Twins in 2022 out of Arizona State, he’s shown promise at the plate in the few professional games he’s gotten into (19 in 2022 and 32 in 2023).

He’s had a slow first month of the Midwest League season for the Kernels, but smashed a solo home run over the deck in left field in the second inning here (107 mile-per-hour exit velocity), drove in another run with a single in the third and added a walk and a run in the seventh.

The RBIs were his first two this season.

“When he has played, he’s been good,” said Kernels Manager Brian Dinkelman. “He’s been hurt, hasn’t gotten a lot of consistent playing time. The first month probably didn’t go the way that he wanted it to, but this week was good for him. He got that home run today, hit one off the wall the other night. Had a big two-out RBI today also. A good day for Nate.”

“Just sticking to my process, sticking to my plan and just trying to do my absolute best out there,” Baez said. “Control what I can control. Whatever else happens, happens.”

The Kernels won the final five games of this six-game series to improve to 15-11. They went 8-4 in a two-week homestand.

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Jordan Carr got a spot pitching start Sunday for Cedar Rapids and threw four one-hit innings. Then it was Kyle Bischoff, Jacob Wosinski and Juan Mercedes in that order to finish off the shutout.

The Kernels head to South Bend for six games beginning Tuesday. Then it’s right back home for a series against Quad Cities.

“We’ve been playing better,” said Dinkelman. “We got off to a slower start there, been up and down. The pitching has been pretty solid most of the time. Hitters are starting to find their way a little bit, having been at-bats. Getting some good swings off. So, yeah, the last couple of weeks have been better.”

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