Michael Baxter was a member of St. Luke's Eagles (NY) and competed in 1997 at Cooperstown Dreams Park during the week of August 23rd.

Michael continued his baseball career in high school playing at Archbishop Molloy High School (Briarwood, NY) where he led his team to New York City's Catholic High School Athletic Association's City championship as a senior (2002). Advancing to the collegiate level, Michael played his freshman year (2003) at Columbia University (New York, NY). An outfielder, he posted a .368 batting average while at Columbia. He transferred to Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN) for his sophomore and junior years (2004, 2005), batting .322 and .375, respectively. He received team MVP honors his junior year. In 2005, Michael was selected by the San Diego Padres in the 4th round of Major League Baseball's amateur entry draft.

Michael made the leap to the minor leagues after the 2005 collegiate season. He spent 2005 and 2006 with the Single-A Fort Wayne TinCaps (Fort Wayne, IN). In 2007, Michael moved to A+ Lake Elsinore Storm (Lake Elsinore, CA) for 111 games, then AAA Portland Beavers (Portland, OR) for 10 games. Back at Lake Elsinore for 24 games in 2008, Michael was with AA San Antonio Missions (San Antonio, TX) for the last three-quarters of the season and first half of 2009. He left San Antonio to play for the Portland Beavers, again, where he remained for the majority of the 2010 season. Michael was promoted to the major leagues on September 6, 2010, by the San Diego Padres.

Unfortunately, Michael was placed on the 60-day disabled list in March 2011. He began his rehab in Single-A. On July 22, 2011, the New York Mets acquired Michael. He was called back to the major league by the Mets on August 8. Michael began the 2012 season on the Mets active roster but suffered an injury on June 1st when he crashed into the left field wall, catching a fly ball. He remains on the disabled list (July 19, 2012) but continues to rehab with the Class A Advanced St. Lucie Mets (Port St. Lucie, FL).