Atlanta’s rookie catcher went from hot to hotter during this past week.
Walking around a big box retailer this morning, Atlanta legends Outkast were playing over the store audio system with their 2003 hit, “Hey Ya!” adding some extra bounce to the eight o’clock in the morning steps.
Atlanta Braves budding star Drake Baldwin was two-years-old when that classic track hit the airwaves, so he’s undoubtedly been privy to hearing the phase, “What cooler than being cool?” at least 500 times in the last two decades.
The rookie catcher capped off another outstanding week by going 2-for-5 in today’s game against the Boston Red Sox and with it sealing his status as this week’s Battery Power Braves Player of the Week.
Baldwin wasn’t the only player to help guide Atlanta to a 5-2 record for the week while wrapping up the final seven games of 17 consecutive days without an off-day.
First baseman Matt Olson had nine hits and two home runs during the week. Marcell Ozuna blast three home runs and drove in nine runs. Alex Verdugo ended the week by seemingly breaking out of a lingering slump.
All of Atlanta’s starting pitchers had good-to-excellent weeks — the since-optioned Bryce Elder, AJ Smith-Shawver and Chris Sale all produced outstanding starts while Grant Holmes and Spencer Schwellenbach were solid. It wasn’t the best weekend for the bullpen, but there’s no need to harp on that.
As good as there starting pitching was, no one had a week as good as Baldwin.
Photo by Michael Owens/Getty Images
Battery Power Braves Player of the Week: Drake Baldwin
The Battery Power Minor League team has been high on the upside of Drake Baldwin for quite some time. But even the most optimistic profiles – the best-case outcomes for his rookie season – couldn’t have projected just how good he has been 47 games into the 2025 campaign.
This past week, Baldwin hit .556 by going 10-for-18 at the plate. Although he only played in five of the team’s seven games, he hit two home runs, drove-in six and scored five times. He had two 3-for-4 games at the plate – starting four games and getting a hit in his only at-bat in his fifth. He also struck out only one time.
For the season, he has an outlandish 175 wRC+ and .983 OPS with the assistance of an average bat speed of 75.2 miles per hour. Coming into Sunday’s game, that bat speed is 35th best in all of baseball (minimum 50 swings) and second only to Austin Riley on the Braves.
After his offensive explosion this month, he is sporting a .357/.400/.983 triple-slash, with only 14 strikeouts in 90 plate appearances. He raised his batting average from .303 to .357 this week and with May more than half-way over, he’s hitting .531 for the month.
While he isn’t the defender behind the plate that Sean Murphy is, Baldwin is a solid receiver with two runners caught stealing this week while continuing to be an excellent pitch framer.
The best game of Baldwin’s week was his performance on Tuesday against the Washington Nationals when he homered and doubled as part of a three-hit night that saw him score three times and drive in two.
With apologies to Big Boi and Andre 3000, right now, Drake Baldwin is cooler than cool – he’s ice cold. In other words, he’s so sigma, as the kids say.