Drake Baldwin, Atlanta Braves
The 2022 third-round draft pick out of Missouri State got the catching job to start the season for the Braves following a rib injury to Sean Murphy.
In Baldwin’s three minor league seasons, he has hit .272/.379/.428 and demonstrated great plate discipline. Through 25 plate appearances this season, he has just 2 hits, and both were singles. This does not do justice to how well Baldwin has hit the ball this season.
He has experienced an unbelievable amount of bad luck to start his career. Just take a look at his Baseball Savant page and you’ll see. He has a bat speed of 75.4 mph and an average exit velocity at 94.3 mph. Velocity numbers like these are worth getting excited about and should stay consistent the rest of the season, while his subpar results will not.
Exit velocity and contact numbers like these should not result in a .091/.200/.091 slash line, but that’s baseball for you. Despite the results, Baldwin is giving us a ton to get excited about for his future. The bat speed demonstrates elite power potential and he combines that with well above-average plate discipline.
The one thing Baldwin could look to improve is his pull AIR% (i.e., batted ball events that result in pulled fly balls). It sits at just 5.9% right now, and looking to pull the ball in the air more with his exit velocity numbers would give him much better results, esepcially in the power department.
These underlying numbers are too good for the hits not to come sooner rather than later. Keep an eye on Baldwin for the rest of this season; his breakout is imminent.