For the 10th time in Atlanta Braves franchise history and for the third time since 2018, the National League Rookie of the Year is an Atlanta Braves player. Drake Baldwin joins a list that includes Earl
Williams in 1971, Bob Horner in 1978, David Justice in 1990, Rafael Furcal in 2000, Craig Kimbrel in 2011, Ronald Acuña Jr. in 2018 and Michael Harris II in 2022 (with Spencer Strider coming a close second in that same year.) It’s an illustrious club of players who went on to become stalwarts for the club and now Drake Baldwin can join that club with those prestigious names.
Baldwin finished the season with a slash line at the plate of .274/.341/.469 with a wOBA of .351, a wRC+ of 125 and 19 home runs. He also cleared 3.0 WAR in both the FanGraphs version and the Baseball-Reference version — something that neither Cade Horton or Caleb Durbin could claim. While they were both great players in their own right and obviously we’re pretty biased around here, it seems like Drake Baldwin was the clear and obvious choice to be named the winner here and now he’s achieved it.
It’s a great way to end the season for Baldwin, who scuffled a bit to start the season. Still, his underlying metrics suggested that he’d get it right eventually and he ended up doing so. His signature moment in my opinion was the ninth-inning home run in Philadelphia that helped push the Braves to victory on Sunday Night Baseball over the eventual NL East Champions.
Drake Baldwin is now the NL Rookie of the Year and deservedly so. He also joins Matt Olson among the list of traditional award winners this season after Olson won the NL Gold Glove Award at first base. Hopefully there’s more to come for Atlanta during this week but for now, this should be a time for Drake Baldwin to celebrate a fantastic achievement.
