While the wins have continued to come, there is no denying that the Atlanta Braves' offense has missed having Drake Baldwin in it. Through May 18 (Baldwin's last game before hitting the IL), the Braves' offense had a collective 113 wRC+ and had scored the second-most runs in baseball (250) behind the Nationals' surprising offensive juggernaut. Since Baldwin went on the shelf with an oblique injury, Atlanta's team wRC+ has dipped to *only* 106 over that span and they have fallen out of the top 5 in runs scored.
Now, that is far from a disaster, but the impact is there and is particularly acute against left-handed pitchers, where Baldwin's reverse splits played a huge role in the Braves' early success against southpaws. With Ronald Acuña Jr. being decidedly uneven recently and Austin Riley being a disaster all season, the right side of the plate for the Braves has been lacking, to say the least.
Well, good news just came on that front courtesy of manager Walt Weiss. According to Weiss, the odds appear good that Baldwin should return from the injured list during the Braves' next home stand, which falls in the middle of the month. For the Braves, the timing couldn't be much better.
Drake Baldwin's return seems set for the Braves' next home stand, and that is pretty ideal
It would be nice for the Braves to have Baldwin in their next series against the Pirates, White Sox, and Mets, but his absence is far from a death knell. Pittsburgh is hot right now, but they are young and not at full strength. In addition, Chicago is without Munetaka Murakami, and the Mets are working hard to ruin their season in record time. More importantly, those three teams have lefty starters that inspire fear in the hearts of men.
Assuming everything goes according to plan, Baldwin would return for Atlanta's series against the Giants, a team that is not playing well at all at the moment. After that, the Braves have a pair of tough series against the Brewers and Padres, where being at full strength would be ideal. While they won't QUITE be completely healthy, getting Baldwin back should make those match-ups much more manageable.
More importantly, getting Baldwin back just helps at every level. Atlanta's replacements at catcher have tried their best, but the position has been a black hole offensively. There are only so many Sandy Leon and Chadwick Tromp-level at-bats one can take before sanity begins to erode. Thankfully, it doesn't sound like the Braves are going to have to weather that much longer.
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