It’s always a good sign when a prospect gets better year after year, level after level. Braves catcher Drake Baldwin has been doing that dating back to his time at Missouri State.

The left-handed-hitting backstop, now No. 5 on the Braves’ Top 30, performed capably in the shortened 2020 season and his first full collegiate campaign of 2021, with an .803 OPS followed by .857. But he took off in 2022, slashing .341/.448/.647 with 19 homers to help him land in the third round of the 2022 Draft.

That trend has continued as a pro. He finished with an .845 OPS and 16 home runs in his first full season, hitting better in his brief stops in Double- and Triple-A than with High-A Rome. He wasn’t super productive back with Mississippi to start 2024, but when he moved up to Gwinnett, he hit .298/.407/.484 over 72 games, with no question that the big league team was hearing him knock on the door.

“That atmosphere up there was really good,” Baldwin said about his time in Triple-A. “I started to see, with the seniority of the players and the amount of experience they all had, what works for them, what doesn't work for them, and just kind of getting into more of a routine on the day-by-day basis, knowing how to get myself ready to play each day, knowing how to be ready for each at-bat, ready to catch every day. And I think that really helped me.”

Baldwin also credits work he put in with Gwinnett hitting coach Dan DeMent, work that he’s continuing while playing for the Peoria Javelinas in the Arizona Fall League. That’s not just with hitting coach Garrett Wilkinson, who worked with Baldwin as the hitting guy with Double-A Mississippi this season; The 23-year-old backstop is excited to soak up wisdom from as many sources as possible.

“I'm just going to try to learn as much as I can from the coaches in different orgs and obviously the coaches in my org as well, and then ask as many questions with other players as well,” Baldwin said. “I know they went through different things, they're playing in different leagues, and they have a ton of different experience. So just trying to learn as much as I can from my peers around me, I think will really help me in the future.”

It’s not just at the plate that Baldwin feels his Fall League stint will aid him. He’s still learning about the craft of catching at the professional level and is just as excited about what this extra time will do for his defense as he did his hitting.

“I think it'll be really cool with pitch calling and just kind of seeing how different pitches kind of work for different pitchers,” Baldwin said. “A lot of times, organizations have different philosophies, so being able to talk to other pitchers and see what works for them and what doesn't work for them, and I think it'll really just help me with game-calling and being more comfortable catching newer guys and just learning a ton about the game.”

Braves hitters in the Fall League

David McCabe, 3B/1B (No. 13): The Braves’ fourth-round selection in the 2022 Draft out of UNC-Charlotte, McCabe hit 17 homers and had an OPS of .835 across two levels of A ball in 2023. A solid AFL campaign last year was supposed to help him vault to the upper levels, but Tommy John surgery in February only allowed him to play 35 games with Double-A Mississippi, so he’s making up for some lost at-bats in this return engagement.

Braves pitchers in the Fall League

Adam Maier, RHP (No. 17): It’s been a little tough for Maier to get on a mound. He was at the University of British Columbia but threw just 19 innings before the pandemic hit in 2020, and the school canceled the 2021 season. He transferred to Oregon in 2022, but suffered a torn UCL after three starts. He had an internal brace put in but didn’t make his pro debut until this season, with some understandably uneven results over 83 1/3 IP.

Hayden Harris, LHP (No. 27): A fifth-year COVID senior who signed with the Braves as a non-drafted free agent in 2022, Harris has pitched his way to Triple-A over his two full seasons of pro ball. He’s extremely fastball heavy (79 percent usage according to Synergy in 2024), but it’s an invisible heater that misses more bats than it should based on its low-90s velocity.

Ryan Bourassa, RHP: The best player to come out of South Dakota State is current Dodgers reliever Blake Treinen, and Bourassa is trying to follow the same under-the-radar path, signing with the Braves as a non-drafted free agent in 2023. He touched Double-A in his first season of pro ball this year, using a fastball-splitter combination with some success.

Isaac Gallegos, RHP: Gallegos threw well enough as a starter at New Mexico in 2023 to get signed as a non-drafted free agent in 2023. He threw just 27 innings this year, but did get to High-A, missing a good amount of bats (13.3 K/9 for the season) while relying heavily on his slider.

Landon Harper, RHP: Harper was one of Division I baseball’s better closers in 2022, finishing with 12 saves for Southern Miss, after two years in the junior college ranks. The 14th-round pick threw well once he got to Double-A this year, mixing pitches well and filling up the zone more than showcasing any wow stuff.