After getting off to a slow start in April, Atlanta Braves rookie catcher Drake Baldwin has suddenly turned into one of the team's best hitters. In the month of May, the 24-year-old has a seemingly impossible .609/.609/.957 slash line and 341 wRC+ in 23 plate appearances. He has been everything the Braves could have wanted and now Atlanta could be in the running for a lesser known benefit if Baldwin can keep this up.
This hot streak has brought his taken him from being a roughly league average hitter in April, to being the eighth-best hitter by wRC+ among hitters with at least 80 plate appearances. Baldwin's performance has coincided with a slumping Braves offense, which has led for calls to give him more playing time.
If the Braves oblige, Baldwin's increased playing time could not just help the team win games this season, but could also lead to even longer lasting implications. As long as Baldwin can continue making MLB pitchers look foolish, he could easily run away with the NL Rookie of the Year and net the Braves an extra draft pick in the process.
Drake Baldwin walks it off for the @Braves! pic.twitter.com/1cst4JlqKg
— MLB (@MLB) May 9, 2025
What is the PPI system and why could Drake Baldwin winning the ROY lead to an extra future draft pick for the Braves?
In 2022, as part of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), MLB introduced a new reward for keeping their top prospects up called Prospect Promotion Incentive rewards (PPI). These rewards could give MLB teams draft picks right after the first round if their prospect won the Rookie of the Year Award or place top three in MVP or Cy Young before qualifying for arbitration.
There are a few stipulations of PPI, however. One is that the prospect must appear in two of the three of ESPN, Baseball America, and MLB.com's preseason Top 100 Prospect rankings. Another is that a prospect must reach a full year of service time during the season.
This hurt the Braves back in 2022, when Michael Harris II won NL Rookie of the Year but was called up too late to reach a full year of service time during the season. PPI incentives did retroactively award him a full year of service time for winning the award, but the Braves weren't able to gain an extra draft pick because Harris only achieved a full year of service time because of the incentives.
This won't be an issue for the Braves rookie catcher, however. Drake Baldwin entered the season on MLB.com and Baseball America's Top 100 Prospects list, and opened the season on the Braves 26-man roster, meaning he'll easily accumulate a year of service time.
While Baldwin has only played in roughly 60% of the Braves games this season, his success with the bat currently slots him as the second-best rookie in baseball by fWAR, behind the Athletics' Jacob Wilson.
Baldwin leads NL rookies by 0.1 fWAR, just a tick above the Brewers starting pitcher, Chad Patrick. He has a full 0.6 fWAR more than any NL position player and has the highest wRC+ of NL rookies with at least 50 plate appearances by 30 points.
As of Wednesday, Baldwin has rocketed to a top-five betting favorite in NL Rookie of the Year odds according to BetMGM, just ahead of teammate AJ Smith-Shawver, who unfortunately would not net the Braves an extra draft pick because of service time because he was not on enough prospect lists.
Brian Snitker has already revealed his intention to ride the hot hand with Baldwin. Coupled with a weak NL rookie class – the second-favorite for the award is Luisangel Acuña, who has an 86 wRC+ and just 0.5 WAR – all the Braves need to do to get Baldwin the Award is play him semi-regularly. If the lefty swinging slugger continues to produce, he could run away with the award and boost the Braves relatively weak farm system.