Photo by Brandon Sloter/Image Of Sport/Getty Images Baldwin kept hitting and flew up the minor league ranks in his first full season as a professional Arguably the best catcher on the Atlanta Braves� farm, Drake Baldwin is coming off...
Photo by Brandon Sloter/Image Of Sport/Getty Images
Baldwin kept hitting and flew up the minor league ranks in his first full season as a professional
Arguably the best catcher on the Atlanta Braves� farm, Drake Baldwin is coming off of a stock-improving season in his first full year as a pro.
How Acquired
Baldwin was selected by the Braves with their third-round pick (96th overall) in the 2022 MLB Draft.
Preseason report card
In our mid-season prospect rankings on Battery Power, Baldwin came in as the teams 15th-best prospect, the same rank he had after the 2022 season.
Coming into the year, there was still some question marks surrounding Baldwin�s game. Despite being a three-year college player, Baldwin posted a 22.5 percent strikeout rate in his 111 PAs after being drafted, with most of those coming in A-ball. On the flip side, he walked a ton in those 111 PAs (18.8 percent of the time), and there was power potential to dream on, even if he failed to show it in a small sample at Augusta.
What we saw in 2023
Sometimes, dreams become reality. After picking up just five extra-base hits in his debut season, Baldwin hit 16 homers and 26 doubles in 109 games across three minor league levels in 2023. His slugging percentage skyrocketed from a lowly .315 in 2022 to .460 in 2023.
Concerns about his strikeout rate also abated, as he struck out 20.5 percent of the time across High-A, Double-A, and Triple-A, with most of his exposure coming at the High-A level.
In the end, Baldwin destroyed High-A to the tune of a 135 wRC+, managed a 117 wRC+ in 59 PAs at Double-A, and had a 122 wRC+ in his teeny-tiny sample of 12 PAs at Triple-A.
2024 outlook
The Braves� aggressive promotion of Baldwin in 2023, almost ensures that he will start the year in Triple-A. There is a small possibility that they start him in Double-A, seeing as he only had 59 PAs there last season, but it would be a bit surprising to see them effectively demote him at this point. While Chadwick Tromp is around, it�s possible we could see Baldwin make his MLB debut this season if there�s another surfeit of catching injuries in the organization.
