The Los Angeles Dodgers, Major League Baseball’s foremost authority on the Rookie of the Year award, didn’t exactly have a memorable campaign on the subject in 2025, but still found a way to sneak at least
one player into the voting poll. Jack Dreyer received two top 5 votes in the National League, with Braves catcher Drake Baldwin comfortably beating out Cubs’ starter Cade Horton to win the award.
Playing well enough to win the starting gig over the veteran Sean Murphy, Baldwin was one of three Atlanta Braves with an OPS north of .800. The rookie backstopper was one of the few positives in a down year for an Atlanta team that fell way short of making the playoffs. Chicago started the year with Shota Imanaga and Justin Steele as their top two starters, but Matthew Boyd and the rookie Horton were the ones who carried the load with the best numbers.
2025 National League Rookie of the Year voting
In a campaign filled with pitching injuries and the bullpen’s struggles, Dreyer’s emergence as a key piece in the bullpen played a pivotal role in helping this team tread water at different times. Utilizing a deadly fastball-slider combo, Dreyer filled in wherever needed. Starting the year on the low end of the totem pole, Dreyer worked his way up the leverage ladder and tied Ben Casparius for most innings out of the bullpen (68.0) in 2025.
Another way to gauge Dreyer’s impact is in acknowledging he was the only reliever on the team with an ERA under 3.00, making up for the struggles of Tanner Scott, Kirby Yates, and company.
Dreyer becomes the first Dodger pitcher to feature in the Rookie of the Year voting since Tony Gonsolin and Dustin May did it back in 2020. Interestingly, that was also the last year in which a reliever won the award, with Devin Williams narrowly beating out Alec Bohm.
