Notebook: Drake Baldwin's ROTY Candidacy Gets a Boost, Prospect Reviews, and Hiring a Manager
Here's some of the biggest stories from the week that was for the Atlanta Braves
To close out the week and prep for the end of the World Series (which will allow the offseason to finally get started), let’s empty out the notebook of everything I accumulated this week that can’t fill an entire newsletter, but is still a bit interesting and worthy of discussion.
Baldwin’s ROTY candidacy just got a boost
Major League Baseball’s official Rookie of the Year awards won’t be announced until sometime in mid-November, but in the meantime, other awarding bodies have been busy.
And one of them is a good omen for the Atlanta Braves.
The Major League Baseball Players Association announced the Players Choice Awards this week, with catcher Drake Baldwin being named the NL Outstanding Rookie.
Several different rookie-focused awards have been announced - Chicago Cubs starter Cade Horton won the NL ROTY award from the Sporting News - but there’s reason to pay more attention to the MLBPA version than the others.
The first reason is the voting pool. The MLBPA’s award is voted on by the players themselves, so Baldwin was the choice of his peers to be recognized as the best rookie in the National League.
But the second reason is how closely this award correlates with MLB’s official award, which has draft pick compensation for the team attached to it. In the 31-year existence of the MLBPA’s award, its winner has gone on to win MLB’s official Rookie of the Year award 21 times. By comparison, the Sporting News award and MLB’s official one overlap barely half the time, with SN getting one right in 2020, one in 2021, one in 2022, and countering getting both right in 2023 with both wrong in 2024.
If Baldwin does win the league’s official Rookie of the Year award, the Braves will receive a Prospect Promotion Incentive draft pick after 2026’s first round; Kansas City’s PPI pick for Bobby Witt’s MVP runner-up finish was #28 in last summer’s draft, while Seattle’s PPI pick for Julio Rodriguez came in at #29 in 2023.
Joining Baldwin in being honored by the MLBPA was outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr., who was named the NL Comeback Player after returning from his ACL tear to hit .290 with 21 homers anfd 74 runs scored in 95 games.
Baseball America’s MLB Draft ‘report card’
I’m putting ‘report card’ in quotes because there’s not actually grades in the piece, but Baseball America gave out their superlatives from Atlanta’s position player-heavy draft class this summer.
Some of the pitching awards were to be expected - 4th rounder Briggs McKenzie, a prep lefty out of North Carolina, received “Best Secondary Pitch” for his 3000+ RPM curveball, while 6th-round lefty Landon Beidelschies received “Best Fastball” for his high-carry heater that sits 94 and touched 98 during collegiate action.
TOOTIN’ MY OWN HORN SIDEBAR: At the end of the day one draft recap episode of the podcast, filmed late Sunday evening after I got off a Zoom with Braves Director of Amateur Scouting Ronit Shah, I mentioned some players that I wanted Atlanta to grab in day two. Among the six names I discussed were both McKenzie and Beidelschies (click their names for timestamped links), so the organization clearly watches and reads Braves Today and for that, we’re grateful.
Someone that flew under the radar after being drafted but who got some love from BA is 3rd-round pick Cody Miller. Coming to the Braves out of East Tennessee State University, he was named “Best Pure Hitter” in the class after a career .330 average in college with a 92% z-contact in his draft year. He continued hitting in Atlanta’s system, putting up a .327/.381/.449 line in 26 games between Single-A Augusta and High-A Rome. He spent time at all three non-first base infield positions during his time with the Emperors (where he was often paired with Florida State shortstop and 2nd-round pick Alex Lodise) and is a sleeper to make a quick rise through the system thanks to his exceptional contact ability and great athleticism.
Other underrated names that were recognized were 4th round compensatory pick Dixon Williams, a second baseman out of East Carolina, and 10th-round righty Kade Woods of LSU, both getting the “Best Pro Debut” superlative. Playing entirely second base, Williams hit .269/.395/.462 in 28 games for Augusta with two homers, 13 RBI, and 14 runs. I was impressed with how comfortable he looked on the basepaths, going 6-0 on stolen bases. As he’s recently focused on just baseball after years of being a two-sport athlete, I’m eager to see how he continues to develop. Woods was an oft-injured SEC arm that pitched just 32 total innings across three years of college, but appears to be fully healthy. Getting on the mound six times for Single-A Augusta, he put up a 2.63 ERA in 13.2 innings with sixteen strikeouts to five walks. The slider showed promise, but I wonder if there’s a third-pitch lurking in the package.
Getting the exciting “Closest to the Majors” superlative was a quartet of early draft picks, with Lodise, Miller, and Beidelschies (as a reliever) being joined by 9th-rounder Logan Braunschweig of UAB. The four-year outfielder, who also received the “Fastest Runner” superlative, hit a blistering .294/.406/.353 in 26 games for High-A Rome, scoring 12 runs and driving in nine. While he spent eleven innings in centerfield, he was predominantly a left fielder, and if he really moves through the system as quickly as BA suggests, he could potentially be a successor to Jurickson Profar when the veteran’s contract runs out after the 2027 season.
More Managers Being Hired
MLB’s massive number of managerial openings has shrunk to just three vacancies with the news that the Washington Nationals have poached an excellent player developer out of Tampa Bay. Blake Butera, who was the Rays senior director of player development in their excellent farm system, is set to be the league’s youngest manager at just 33 years old. That means six of the nine open spots have been filled, with just Atlanta, San Diego, and Colorado waiting to hire a manager:
Rangers: Skip Schumaker (10/3)
Angels: Kurt Suzuki (10/21)
Giants: Tony Vitello (10/22)
Orioles: Craig Albernaz (10/26)
Twins: Derek Shelton (10/29)
Nationals: Blake Butera (10/30)
As an aside, Shelton is very close with former Twins manager Rocco Baldelli, who was fired by Minnesota after this most recent season. I wonder if this is awkward for either man, although I’m guessing it’s not. Brian Snitker replaced Fredi Gonzalez as Atlanta manager and the two men were still close enough friends that Snitker hired Fredi mid-season to take over as third base coach.
The good news is that the assumed favorites for the open Padres and Rockies jobs don’t have a lot of overlap with the Braves’ reported finalists of Danny Lehmann, George Lombard, and Ryan Flaherty. The only one of the three linked to another open role is Flaherty, who is believed to be an option in San Diego, where he spent some time as bench coach after losing out on the big chair to Bob Melvin last time San Diego went through the hiring cycle.
The longer this process takes, the more I’m convinced Atlanta is hiring Lehmann from the Los Angeles Dodgers as soon as the World Series concludes. For more info on all three candidates, we have a newsletter available for each:
