The Atlanta Braves are back in town, which means that the incredibly informative events that are Walt Weiss’ pregame press conferences are back in full swing. Fresh off the heels of Braves President of Baseball Operations/General Manager Alex Anthopoulos providing a bit of a nebulous update on Drake Baldwin’s injury status and being the first to talk about Hurston Waldrep’s rehab assignment, Weiss piggybacked on those comments when discussing the two injured youngsters for Atlanta.
Weiss reportedly
told the media in attendance that the next homestand (June 16-18 against the Giants and June 19-21 against the Brewers) served as a reasonable time span for a potential return for Baldwin. Mark Bowman of MLB.com was the first to write up the story.
If that’s the case, then that falls in line with AA’s thinking that mid-June (aka around four weeks from the date of Baldwin’s oblique injury) would be when we’d start to hear rumblings about Baldwin potentially returning to the fold.
Heading into today’s action, Baldwin is still tied for the team lead in fWAR (2.2, alongside Matt Olson) as he has gotten off to a blistering start in 2026. Before he went down with the oblique injury, Baldwin was hitting .303/.389/.543 with a .405 wOBA, 161 wRC+ and 13 home runs. Needless to say, getting Baldwin back as soon as possible (and hopefully having him hit the ground running upon returning) would be huge for a lineup that is really starting to click. Assuming Ronald Acuña Jr. can keep up his current level of production, a 1-2 punch of Acuña and Baldwin would prove nightmarish for opposing pitchers to face.
So now that we have both the General Manager and the Manager stating that Drake Baldwin could be back in mid-June, I guess it’s safe to go ahead and circle the next homestand after this one on your calendar. Baldwin won’t be back in action for his Braves hockey jersey giveaway night but he’ll be back in action on the field soon, so stay tuned.
