The Atlanta Braves are no strangers to having some of baseball's best prospects. Many of those prospects are now massive stars in today's game. Those incredible prospects advancing caused the Braves to deplete their farm system but they've been steadily rebuilding over the last few seasons.
Fans have gotten a glimpse of some of these young players just last season. Hurston Waldrep pitched in a couple of games, Nacho Alvarez Jr. featured on the MLB roster for a brief stint, and Spencer Schwellenbach proved to be a bona fide starting pitcher.
Waldrep and Alvarez still needed more time to develop but their time will come. There is one prospect Braves fans need to keep their eye on this year and he's already impressing at spring training. While Sean Murphy and Chadwick Tromp will be the catching duo at the start of the season, Baldwin is knocking on the door and could make his debut in 2025.
Murphy is one of the best catchers in baseball and it's important to not let his poor performance in 2024 cloud that fact. He never really found his groove after being injured in the first game of the season.
Atlanta expects that he will return to his normal self this season but Baldwin may force their hand depending on how he performs.
Braves top prospect Drake Baldwin could make his MLB debut in 2025
Baldwin is listed as the 63rd best prospect in baseball according to MLB.com but Fangraphs released their top 100 recently and the backstop is listed as the 11th best. He earned that distinction after an impressive season where he played 124 games with a .276 average, 19 doubles, 16 home runs, 88 RBI, 72 walks, and 98 strikeouts.
He has great power from the left side and is pretty good behind the dish as well. However, he's only reached the Triple-A level and will need to prove he can maintain the success he's found with the big league club. Braves insider David O'Brien believes Baldwin will make his MLB debut this summer if there's an injury or if the team wants to have him platoon the position over Tromp.
Manager Brian Snitker seems to like Baldwin's potential and thinks he's improved over the last couple of seasons. Snit stated, “I think we’ve done a really good job in developing this kid and letting him grow and mature. He’s (opened) a lot of eyes. And I just look at a guy that just continues to improve every spring, getting better with all the repetitions he’s getting.”
The talent is there and pitcher Ian Anderson stated Baldwin is great at communicating with pitchers and really likes to learn their repertoire. That's a massively important characteristic for a catcher to have.
Baldwin has learned a lot after his participated in spring training the last two years. He specifically mentioned Travis d'Arnaud, who made a big impression on him. The main takeaway d'Arnaud had for the youngster was to not focus too much on the highs and lows.
Baldwin was asked what he wanted to improve upon this year and he mentioned being more consistent — working on improving his arm strength, game calling, and receiving the ball better. It seems he has the right mindset to take the next step at some point this season.
He likely won't take a majority of starts away from Murphy unless things just go sideways. But fans need to keep their eyes peeled for another great year from Baldwin.