There’s perhaps no team in baseball that’s better at locking up talent at the right time than the Atlanta Braves. They inked Ozzie Albies to a seven-year, $35 million contract the year before he led the National League in hits. Ronald Acuña Jr.’s eight-year, $100 million contract looks like an absolute steal. Spencer Strider was a Cy Young candidate the season after he signed his six-year, $75 million extension.

And that track record usually leads everyone in baseball to ask the same question: who’s next? The answer to that question is simple. It’s Drake Baldwin.

The Atlanta Braves need to give a contract extension to Drake Baldwin

Baldwin has broken out in a big way so far in 2025, as the rookie catcher has posted a .321/.368/.500 slashline while taking playing serviceable defense behind the plate.

This is looking like the first year of what could be a lightning quick ascension for Baldwin, and the Braves should be doing everything in their power to get in on the ground floor. There’s a precedent for this as well. Acuña’s contract extension came after his first season; Albies’ was after his second.

Baldwin’s average is third among catcher with at least 100 at-bats. He’s also sixth in slugging (.500) and fifth in wRC+ (142), which puts him above modern baseball mainstays like Gabriel Moreno, Alejandro Kirk and a guy named Sean Murphy.

Baldwin was given the runway to have a breakout season thanks to Murphy starting the season on the injured list due to a rib injury. While Baldwin only missed 10 games, it was enough of a time for Baldwin to make an impression.

The Braves elected to keep Baldwin on the roster after Murphy returned from the injured list, and he’s rewarded their faith. He recorded a walk-off hit against the Reds as a late-game substitution, and followed that up by hitting .378 across his next 15 games to close out May.

While Baldwin doesn’t have enough at-bats to qualify for the Baseball Savant leaderboards, he’d rank in the top percentile in expected batting average (.318), hard-hit rate (56.7%) and strikeout rate (14%).

He’s squaring up fastballs at a rate beyond his years (.345 average against heaters) and has been showcasing his power against junk (three home runs on breaking pitches). Baldwin’s as complete of a hitter as you can be for a rookie catcher.

They likely wouldn’t need to pay a ton to lock up Baldwin either. The Blue Jays managed to sign Kirk to a five-year, $58 million extension in spring training, which likely isn’t out of the realm of possibility for what Baldwin could be worth. Maybe a six-year, $55 million contract that would buy out all of Baldwin’s arbitration years?

The other part of this equation is Murphy’s presence on the roster, since Baldwin likely wouldn’t be able to be the team’s full-time catcher as long as Murphy’s on the roster.

Murphy’s on a six-year, $73 million contract that runs through 2028, which is a great contract if he’s producing. But right now he isn’t.

While he’s still a dangerous at-bat, he hasn’t been able to reach the heights he reached in his first season in Atlanta in 2023. He entered play on Tuesday hitting just .203 across 108 games with the Braves in 2024 and ‘25. Baldwin is simply a younger (and cheaper) option with a more complete profile than Murphy.

There’s a world where these two could co-exist without Marcell Ozuna on the roster as a full-time designated hitter, but the Braves may want to keep that position open as a way to get Acuña or another veteran off their feet.