Boston Red Sox Blaze Jordan (19) at bat during an MLB Spring Breakout game against the Tampa Bay Rays on March 13, 2025 at Charlotte Sports Park in Port Charlotte, Florida. (Mike Janes/Four Seam Images via AP)

Mike Janes

Late Wednesday, their Cardinals announced their second trade of the day, dealing relief pitcher Steven Matz to Boston. In return, the Red Sox sent power-hitting infielder Blaze Jordan to the Cardinals.

Jordan was Baseball America’s No. 24 Red Sox prospect this season. MLB.com slots him in as the Cardinals’ 19th-best prospect.

Drafted by incoming Cardinals president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom in 2020, the two will reunite in the Cardinals organization.

Here are five things to know about Blaze Jordan.

The basics on Jordan

A third-round pick in the 2020 draft, Jordan, now 22, was just 17 when he joined the Boston Red Sox organization. Originally scheduled to graduate high school a year later, he reclassified to go pro early.

Jordan, listed at 6 feet tall and 220 pounds, moved up to Triple-A for the first time in early June after he was one of the top hitters in the Double-A Eastern League to start 2025 with a .928 on-base plus slugging percentage.

His numbers have dropped off a bit, as expected, as he moved up to Triple-A.

He went to high school in Southaven, Mississippi, about a 25-minute drive from the home ballpark of the Cardinals’ Triple-A Memphis affiliate.

An Internet sensation as a child

Globe Life Park

Nov 12, 2016

Jordan burst onto the scene at a young age after several viral videos of him hitting mammoth home runs as a child.

As an 11-year-old, he hit a purported 395-foot shot at the Texas Rangers’ ballpark. At 13, he hit a pair of homers there that reportedly traveled 500 feet.

As a result, he was a minor celebrity even before he began high school. That celebrity allowed him to score a workout with former Cardinals great Albert Pujols.

“He was one of the nicest guys,” Jordan said of Pujols.

Jordan committed to Mississippi State University at the age of 13 and first made his high school’s varsity team as an eighth grader. 

He was even a pitcher for a time, throwing a 92-mile per hour fastball.

Initially a football player, Jordan turned to baseball after suffering a concussion at age 7.

Stats show development

A sign that Jordan has grown in the past year: his swing rate has dropped from 56.8% last year to 46% this year, a career best.

His 8.7% swinging strike rate this year is also a career best and 5.3 percentage points below where it was three years ago.

Jordan is also drawing far more walks this year.

He is putting up a .308 batting average and an .872 OPS in Double-A and Triple-A combined this season with 33 walks and 38 strikeouts in 321 at-bats. Jordan has hit 12 homers and driven in 62 runs this season.

Defensively, he has split time between first and third base this season, though scouting reports are bearish on his future at third base in the majors.

Can the power translate?

Jordan’s power is unquestionable. The main concern is whether it will translate into the major leagues.

“The Red Sox seem to have their own doubts,” Red Sox reporter Sean McAdam recently wrote.

Given his shortcomings in speed and defensive liabilities (he projects as a first baseman), Jordan has to hit at an extremely high level to stick in the majors and tap more of his raw power.

SoxProspects.com wrote that he “faces questions about raw power actualizing due to hit tool concerns. Average in-game power potential.”

But Jordan has been among the younger players at every level, and he missed significant time in 2024 with a couple of injuries that limited him to 89 games.

Despite that, Baseball America notes that he cut his chase rate earlier this season and tallied more walks than strikeouts, forcing a promotion to Triple-A.

“He’s continued to improve in a lot of areas,” Red Sox executive Brian Abraham said, according to MLB.com. “Overall, it’s been his consistency on both sides of the ball. Solid defense — especially at first base — improved swing decisions, impacting the baseball and driving the ball in the air for damage.”

A reunion with Chaim Bloom

Chaim Bloom, incoming Cardinals president of baseball operations, drafted Jordan in 2020 in what was Bloom’s first draft as the Boston Red Sox’s chief baseball officer.

“He’s just always had a feel for the barrel,” Bloom told MassLive in 2023. “In terms of refining the approach and obviously a lot of the work on the defensive side, he’s continuing to grow into his body and as he becomes a man there’s obviously still a lot of things to work on.

“But he can hit. And he just continues to perform. So he’s definitely got our attention.”

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