Drake Baldwin’s second half rebound with Braves is hiding unfortunate new lack of patience

Reports of Drake Baldwin's demise have been greatly exaggerated. Coming off his Rookie of the Year-winning season in 2025, the Atlanta Braves catcher looked like a one-man wrecking crew at the start of the season and a potential MVP candidate. However, after an oblique injury sidelined him for around a month towards the end of the first half, Baldwin returned and looked like a shadow of his former self.

Thankfully, most of those struggles did not last. After the All-Star break, Baldwin returned to hitting the ball with authority and once again was a key cog in the Braves' offense. However, his impact has not been quite the same now that he isn't being nearly as patient or drawing walks, and the offense is definitely feeling it.

Drake Baldwin bounced back except for his ability to draw walks, and the Braves offense needs them badly

Overall, there is a lot to like about what Baldwin has been doing since August 1. He is hitting .282, which is more than acceptable, and he has 15 extra-base hits including four homers over that same span. That isn't as good as Baldwin was during his early-season hot streak, but you definitely take that from your catcher pretty much every time.

However, there is a problem. Baldwin has 189 plate appearances since the beginning of August. In those 189 plate appearances, he has struck out 44 times. That is a sub-25% strikeout rate, and most fans would take that every time (except the people who think being like Tony Gwynn is easy). Unfortunately, he has only walked in those same 43 games, which has limited his OBP to .323.

Not only is this typical for what we had grown to expect from Baldwin, but it has also been costly to the Braves' offense. Atlanta already has a trio of guys that seem allergic to drawing walks: Michael Harris II, Mauricio Dubon, and Ozzie Albies. Once you add Baldwin to that group in addition to Austin Riley's maddening slump, it is no wonder that the Braves haven't been able to sustain much offense this season.

The problem now is that "just walk more" isn't an actual solution. As we have seen with Atlanta's prolonged struggles with ABS challenges, this is a roster that very clearly doesn't have a great sense of the strike zone. Patience is a hitting philosophy to be sure, but you DO have to swing at the right pitches at some point. Right now, Baldwin thinks that there are more "right pitches" than there actually are, and he is far from alone on this Braves roster.

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