diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 2725e46..fa64fac 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -83,3 +83,6 @@ postgres_data/
 README_GAUNTLET_CLEANUP.md
 wipe_gauntlet_team.py
 SCHEMA.md
+
+# Benchmark output files
+benchmarks/render_timings.txt
diff --git a/benchmarks/BASELINE.md b/benchmarks/BASELINE.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2f4bb42
--- /dev/null
+++ b/benchmarks/BASELINE.md
@@ -0,0 +1,92 @@
+# Phase 0 Baseline Benchmarks — WP-00
+
+Captured before any Phase 0 render-pipeline optimizations (WP-01 through WP-04).
+Run these benchmarks again after each work package lands to measure improvement.
+
+---
+
+## 1. Per-Card Render Time
+
+**What is measured:** Time from HTTP request to full PNG response for a single card image.
+Each render triggers a full Playwright Chromium launch, page load, screenshot, and teardown.
+
+### Method
+
+```bash
+# Set API_BASE to the environment under test
+export API_BASE=http://pddev.manticorum.com:816
+
+# Run against 10 batting cards (auto-fetches player IDs)
+./benchmarks/benchmark_renders.sh
+
+# Or supply explicit player IDs:
+./benchmarks/benchmark_renders.sh 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110
+
+# For pitching cards:
+CARD_TYPE=pitching ./benchmarks/benchmark_renders.sh
+```
+
+Prerequisites: `curl`, `jq`, `bc`
+
+Results are appended to `benchmarks/render_timings.txt`.
+
+### Baseline Results — 2026-03-13
+
+| Environment | Card type | N | Min (s) | Max (s) | Avg (s) |
+|-------------|-----------|---|---------|---------|---------|
+| dev (pddev.manticorum.com:816) | batting | 10 | _TBD_ | _TBD_ | _TBD_ |
+| dev (pddev.manticorum.com:816) | pitching | 10 | _TBD_ | _TBD_ | _TBD_ |
+
+> **Note:** Run `./benchmarks/benchmark_renders.sh` against the dev API and paste
+> the per-render timings from `render_timings.txt` into the table above.
+
+**Expected baseline (pre-optimization):** ~2.0–3.0s per render
+(Chromium spawn ~1.0–1.5s + Google Fonts fetch ~0.3–0.5s + render ~0.3s)
+
+---
+
+## 2. Batch Upload Time
+
+**What is measured:** Wall-clock time to render and upload N card images to S3
+using the `pd-cards upload` CLI (in the `card-creation` repo).
+
+### Method
+
+```bash
+# In the card-creation repo:
+time pd-cards upload --cardset 24 --limit 20
+```
+
+Or to capture more detail:
+
+```bash
+START=$(date +%s%3N)
+pd-cards upload --cardset 24 --limit 20
+END=$(date +%s%3N)
+echo "Elapsed: $(( (END - START) / 1000 )).$((  (END - START) % 1000 ))s"
+```
+
+### Baseline Results — 2026-03-13
+
+| Environment | Cards | Elapsed (s) | Per-card avg (s) |
+|-------------|-------|-------------|-----------------|
+| dev (batting) | 20 | _TBD_ | _TBD_ |
+| dev (pitching) | 20 | _TBD_ | _TBD_ |
+
+> **Note:** Run the upload command in the `card-creation` repo and record timings here.
+
+**Expected baseline (pre-optimization):** ~40–60s for 20 cards (~2–3s each sequential)
+
+---
+
+## 3. Re-run After Each Work Package
+
+| Milestone | Per-card avg (s) | 20-card upload (s) | Notes |
+|-----------|-----------------|-------------------|-------|
+| Baseline (pre-WP-01/02) | _TBD_ | _TBD_ | This document |
+| After WP-01 (self-hosted fonts) | — | — | |
+| After WP-02 (persistent browser) | — | — | |
+| After WP-01 + WP-02 combined | — | — | |
+| After WP-04 (concurrent upload) | — | — | |
+
+Target: <1.0s per render, <5 min for 800-card upload (with WP-01 + WP-02 deployed).
diff --git a/benchmarks/benchmark_renders.sh b/benchmarks/benchmark_renders.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..a9c5d6e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/benchmarks/benchmark_renders.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,75 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+# WP-00: Baseline benchmark — sequential card render timing
+#
+# Measures per-card render time for 10 cards by calling the card image
+# endpoint sequentially and recording curl's time_total for each request.
+#
+# Usage:
+#   API_BASE=http://pddev.manticorum.com:816 ./benchmarks/benchmark_renders.sh
+#   API_BASE=http://localhost:8000 CARD_TYPE=pitching ./benchmarks/benchmark_renders.sh
+#   API_BASE=http://pddev.manticorum.com:816 ./benchmarks/benchmark_renders.sh 101 102 103
+#
+# Arguments (optional): explicit player IDs to render. If omitted, the script
+# queries the API for the first 10 players in the live cardset.
+#
+# Output: results are printed to stdout and appended to benchmarks/render_timings.txt
+
+set -euo pipefail
+
+API_BASE="${API_BASE:-http://localhost:8000}"
+CARD_TYPE="${CARD_TYPE:-batting}"
+OUTFILE="$(dirname "$0")/render_timings.txt"
+
+echo "=== Card Render Benchmark ===" | tee -a "$OUTFILE"
+echo "Date: $(date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ)" | tee -a "$OUTFILE"
+echo "API:  $API_BASE" | tee -a "$OUTFILE"
+echo "Type: $CARD_TYPE" | tee -a "$OUTFILE"
+
+# --- Resolve player IDs ---
+if [ "$#" -gt 0 ]; then
+    PLAYER_IDS=("$@")
+    echo "Mode: explicit IDs (${#PLAYER_IDS[@]} players)" | tee -a "$OUTFILE"
+else
+    echo "Mode: auto-fetch first 10 players from live cardset" | tee -a "$OUTFILE"
+    # Fetch player list and extract IDs; requires jq
+    RAW=$(curl -sf "$API_BASE/api/v2/players?page_size=10")
+    PLAYER_IDS=($(echo "$RAW" | jq -r '.players[].id // .[]?.id // .[]' 2>/dev/null | head -10))
+    if [ "${#PLAYER_IDS[@]}" -eq 0 ]; then
+        echo "ERROR: Could not fetch player IDs from $API_BASE/api/v2/players" | tee -a "$OUTFILE"
+        exit 1
+    fi
+fi
+
+echo "Players: ${PLAYER_IDS[*]}" | tee -a "$OUTFILE"
+echo "" | tee -a "$OUTFILE"
+
+# --- Run renders ---
+TOTAL=0
+COUNT=0
+
+for player_id in "${PLAYER_IDS[@]}"; do
+    # Bypass cached PNG files; remove ?nocache=1 after baseline is captured to test cache-hit performance.
+    URL="$API_BASE/api/v2/players/$player_id/${CARD_TYPE}card?nocache=1"
+    HTTP_CODE=$(curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code} %{time_total}" "$URL" 2>&1)
+    STATUS=$(echo "$HTTP_CODE" | awk '{print $1}')
+    TIMING=$(echo "$HTTP_CODE" | awk '{print $2}')
+    echo "  player_id=$player_id  http=$STATUS  time=${TIMING}s" | tee -a "$OUTFILE"
+    if [ "$STATUS" = "200" ]; then
+        TOTAL=$(echo "$TOTAL + $TIMING" | bc -l)
+        COUNT=$((COUNT + 1))
+    fi
+done
+
+# --- Summary ---
+echo "" | tee -a "$OUTFILE"
+if [ "$COUNT" -gt 0 ]; then
+    AVG=$(echo "scale=3; $TOTAL / $COUNT" | bc -l)
+    echo "Successful renders: $COUNT / ${#PLAYER_IDS[@]}" | tee -a "$OUTFILE"
+    echo "Total time:  ${TOTAL}s" | tee -a "$OUTFILE"
+    echo "Average:     ${AVG}s per render" | tee -a "$OUTFILE"
+else
+    echo "No successful renders — check API_BASE and player IDs" | tee -a "$OUTFILE"
+fi
+echo "---" | tee -a "$OUTFILE"
+echo "" | tee -a "$OUTFILE"
+echo "Results appended to $OUTFILE"