MLB · C · Atlanta Braves
Drake Baldwin
B/T L/R · 6' 0" · 225 lb · born Madison, WI, USA · age 25 · draft 2022 rd 3 · played C 78, DH 44 · MLB debut 2025-03-27
Last 14 days (through 2026-08-27): 12 G · .277 AVG · 1 HR · 4 RBI · .780 OPS
488 plate appearances scored this season His season card →
The card rack
FlagshipDrake Baldwin #96 · 2025 Topps Cosmic Chrome · 292 recent sales 7N ▲1.8%
His flagship is his rookie — one card, one market.
Live on eBay now · asking, not sold · as of 2026-08-27 · paid links
Paid link — as an eBay Partner, FVR earns from qualifying purchases. · Flagship = his most-traded card (the market’s reference); the rookie = the top card of his first card year. As of August 27, 2026 · trend is FVR's own nightly archive · prices via SportsCardsPro · what these terms mean
Scout’s note
Baldwin hits the ball harder than most: 108.035 EV95, 78th percentile of 365 qualified bats, well above the 105.9 median. His results sit 0.0479 below the physics — slightly owed, but not enough to flag. A third-round pick out of Madison, Wisconsin, 25, already with 40 home runs and 143 RBI in 227 career games. He sits No. 27 on the breakout composite; the board takes 20, and the distance between him and that line is thin.
We wrote about Baldwin here — The Buzz July 20, 2026
Current signals
The read: Baldwin is tracked, not flagged: an EV95 of 108.1 (78th percentile of the 373 qualified MLB bats we track; median 105.8) with results 0.044 below the physics — slightly owed, but not enough to flag. He sits No. 35 of 373 on the breakout composite; the board takes 20.
OWED — his contact has outrun his line. Where he sits in the league →
- EV95 (mph)
- 108.065
- Luck gap (park-adj)
- -0.0439
- Overlay score
- 0.5131
- Age
- 25
Where he stands
throughAgainst the 373 qualified major-league hitters — 100+ balls in play this season, the same field the boards are chosen out of. Right is better on every row.
- EV95108.178
- Deserved (xVal)0.45893
- Got (aVal)0.40678
- Luck gap (park-adjusted)flipped-0.04488
today · 30 days ago, against the 330 men who qualified then · the tick is the midpoint · the number at the right is the percentile, the number beside it the measurement itself.
What he’s paid
Pre-arbitrationA market fact, not an engine read: what a club decided about him, on the season before this one. Figures from Cot’s, as of .
- 2026 salary
- $0.80Mest
- Tax hit
- $0.80M
- Service time
- 1 yr 0 d
- Options left
- 3 / 3
The deal 1 year $0.8M (2026)
On the sheet: 1 y/$800,000 (26)
After this season, as the sheet has it
| Season | 2028 | 2029 | 2030 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cash | Arb 1 | Arb 2 | Arb 3 |
| Tax hit | — | — | — |
Regime read from his service time, not from the sheet — it does not project him past this season. Super Two eligibility is the top 22% of a class and can move this line in a way service time alone cannot see.
Cash and the tax hit are two different rulebooks and are never subtracted from one another — see the payroll board for his club, Atlanta Braves.
A second set of books
The same contract, read by MLB Spreadsheets (Ethan Hullihen), as of . We keep two sources on this because one source cannot check itself.
- Tax AAV
- $0.80M
- Guaranteed
- $0.80M
- Term
- 1 yr
- His class
- Pre-Arb
What the sheet prices each season at
| Season | 2026 | 2027 | 2028 | 2029 | 2030 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Salary | Minimum | Minimum | Arb 1 | Arb 2 | Arb 3 |
A base salary under his own reading, and never subtracted from the cash figure above: a signing bonus lands in one and not the other, so the two disagree on most men without either being wrong. And the sheet does not mark which future seasons are GUARANTEED — a club option and a projected arbitration award are both just a number here, so read past the end of the deal as his forecast rather than as money owed.
Two sources, read a month apart, put this guarantee at the same dollar. That is the check, and it passed.
The tax AAV above is his number under the CBA’s own rulebook, not the average we work out from Cot’s total. On a contract with deferred money the two come apart on purpose — and neither is subtracted from the other.
Collect Drake Baldwin
If the signal is right, the cardboard usually finds out later. Current listings:
Drake Baldwin cards on eBay →Paid link — as an eBay Partner, FVR earns from qualifying purchases.
Not financial advice. We take positions only after publication — never before. Misses stay on the record.
Umpire favor
+1.4 net runs over 49 graded games — the zone was kind to him on balance.
The line
| Year | Team | Lvl | G | AB | R | H | HR | RBI | SB | BB | SO | AVG | OPS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Atlanta Braves | MLB | 124 | 405 | 56 | 111 | 19 | 80 | 0 | 38 | 68 | .274 | .810 |
| 2026 | Atlanta Braves | MLB | 110 | 430 | 71 | 118 | 21 | 65 | 3 | 49 | 101 | .274 | .808 |
| MLB CAREER | 234 | 835 | 127 | 229 | 40 | 145 | 3 | 87 | 169 | .274 | .809 | ||
Bio & season lines: MLB StatsAPI · refreshed nightly · abbreviations →