Drake Randall Baldwin (born March 28, 2001) is an American professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

catcher Catcher is a position in baseball and softball. When a batter takes their turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the (home) umpire, and receives the ball from the pitcher. In addition to this primary duty, the catc ...

for the

Atlanta Braves The Atlanta Braves are an American professional baseball team based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Braves compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Eas ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

(MLB). He made his MLB debut in 2025.

Amateur career

Baldwin attended

Madison West High School Madison West High School is a grade 9-12 public high school in Madison, Wisconsin, operated by the Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD). The school was founded in 1930. It is one of the five high schools in MMSD, and serves students from th ...

Madison, Wisconsin Madison is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. It is the List of municipalities in Wisconsin by population, second-most populous city in the state, with a population of 269,840 at the 2020 Uni ...

, where he played

and

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

. As a junior in 2018, he led the state of Wisconsin with 43 goals scored. In hockey, Baldwin was a center and left wing. Baldwin enrolled at

Missouri State University Missouri State University (MSU or MO State), formerly Southwest Missouri State University, is a public university in Springfield, Missouri, United States. Founded in 1905 as the Fourth District Normal School, it is the state's second-largest u ...

to play

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played by Student athlete, student-athletes at institutions of higher education. In the United States, college baseball is sanctioned mainly by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA); in Japan, ...

. He played in 17 games during a shortened season in 2020, and then played 43 games in 2021, batting .291 with four home runs and 24 RBI. During the summer of 2021, he played in the

Northwoods League The Northwoods League is a collegiate summer baseball wooden bat league. All players in the league must have National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA eligibility remaining in order to participate. The league is amateur, and players are not ...

for the Madison Mallards and batted .316 with four home runs over 52 games. Baldwin became a strong prospect for the upcoming draft as a junior in 2022, in which he hit .341 with 19 home runs and 70 runs batted in over 60 games.

Professional career

Baldwin was selected by the

in the third round with the 96th overall pick of the

2022 Major League Baseball draft The 2022 Major League Baseball draft took place on July 17–19, 2022, in Los Angeles. The draft assigned amateur baseball players to Major League Baseball (MLB) teams. The draft order was based on the reverse order of the 2021 MLB season standin ...

. Baldwin made his professional debut in 2022 with the rookie-level

Florida Complex League Braves The Florida Complex League Braves are an American baseball team. They are the Rookie-level affiliate of the Atlanta Braves, competing in the Florida Complex League of Minor League Baseball. Prior to 2021, the team was known as the Gulf Coast Lea ...

and also played with the Single-A

Augusta GreenJackets The Augusta GreenJackets are a Minor League Baseball team of the Carolina League and the Single-A affiliate of the Atlanta Braves. They play their home games at SRP Park in North Augusta, South Carolina. History Augusta was a member of the S ...

, hitting .258 over 24 games. He opened the 2023 season with the High-A

Rome Braves The Rome Emperors are a Minor League Baseball team of the South Atlantic League and the High-A affiliate of the Atlanta Braves. They are located in Rome, Georgia, and play their home games at AdventHealth Stadium. From 2003 to 2023, the team wa ...

, was promoted to the Double-A

Mississippi Braves The Mississippi Braves, or M-Braves as they were referred to locally, were a Minor League Baseball team based in Pearl, Mississippi, a suburb of Jackson, from 2005 to 2024. They were the Double-A affiliate of the Atlanta Braves and competed in ...

in late August, before later being promoted to the Triple-A

Gwinnett Stripers The Gwinnett Stripers are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League (IL) and the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A affiliate of the Atlanta Braves. They play their home games at Coolray Field in unincorporated Gwinnett County, Georgia ...

in September. Over 109 appearances split between the three affiliates, Baldwin

slashed Ash are a Northern Irish rock band formed in Downpatrick, County Down in 1992 by vocalist and guitarist Tim Wheeler, bassist Mark Hamilton and drummer Rick McMurray. As a three-piece, they released mini-album '' Trailer'' in 1994 and full-lengt ...

.270/.384/.460 with 16 home runs and 61 RBI. He opened the 2024 season with Mississippi and was promoted to Gwinnett in June. Baldwin was selected to represent the Braves in the

All-Star Futures Game The All-Star Futures Game is an annual baseball exhibition game hosted by Major League Baseball (MLB) in conjunction with the mid-summer MLB All-Star Game. A team of American League-affiliated prospects competes against a team of National League- ...

Globe Life Field Globe Life Field is a retractable roof stadium in Arlington, Texas, United States. It is the home ballpark of Major League Baseball's Texas Rangers (baseball), Texas Rangers. It is located just south of the Rangers' former home ballpark, Globe ...

. After the minor league regular season ended, Baldwin was named to the preliminary roster of the

Arizona Fall League The Arizona Fall League (AFL) is an off-season baseball league owned and operated by Major League Baseball (MLB) which operates during autumn in Arizona, United States, at six different baseball complexes. Arizona Fall League rosters are filled ...

Peoria Javelinas The Peoria Javelinas are a baseball team based in Peoria, Arizona, that competes in the West Division of the Arizona Fall League. The team plays its home games at Peoria Sports Complex. The ballpark is also the spring training facility for the S ...

, and to the United States's roster for the

2024 WBSC Premier12 The 2024 WBSC Premier12 was the 3rd edition of the WBSC Premier12, a baseball championship featuring the 12 highest-ranked national teams in the world, held by the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC). Originally scheduled for 2023, but de ...

. On March 21, 2025, the Braves selected Baldwin's contract after he made the team's

Opening Day Opening Day is the day on which professional baseball leagues begin their regular season. For Major League Baseball (MLB) and most of the American minor leagues, this day typically falls during the first week of April, although in recent year ...

roster. He hit his first major league home run on April 16, against

Toronto Blue Jays The Toronto Blue Jays are a Canadian professional baseball team based in Toronto. The Blue Jays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East Division. Since 1989, the team has p ...

reliever

Jeff Hoffman Jeffrey Robert Hoffman (born January 8, 1993) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Toronto Blue Jays of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the Colorado Rockies, Cincinnati Reds, and Philadelphia Phil ...

Rogers Centre Rogers Centre (originally SkyDome) is a retractable roof stadium in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated at the base of the CN Tower near the northern shore of Lake Ontario. Opened in 1989 on the former Railway Lands, it is home to t ...

Personal life

Baldwin's mother Bridgette is a teacher.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baldwin, Drake 2001 births Living people 21st-century American sportsmen African-American baseball players Atlanta Braves players Augusta GreenJackets players Baseball players from Madison, Wisconsin Florida Complex League Braves players Gwinnett Stripers players Madison Mallards players Major League Baseball catchers Mississippi Braves players Missouri State Bears baseball players Peoria Javelinas players Rome Braves players