Drake Baldwin says he will return when he is ‘at 100%’
It was a little more than two weeks ago when Drake Baldwin took a swing during a game in Miami and felt pain in his right side, in his oblique muscle to be exact.
Baldwin, the Braves’ star catcher and reigning National League Rookie of the Year, was having a sensational start to his sophomore season to that point. He hasn’t played since — and he said Wednesday at Truist Park he’s not really sure when he’ll be able to play again.
“I’m just kind of taking it day by day, honestly,” Baldwin said. “I mean, it seems like with this, it’s kind of how you feel day in and day out. And you don’t really know until you get to that point. And then just when I’m comfortable enough to go in and play at 100%, that’s when the timetable will be (done). But because I’ve never dealt with this really, I don’t really know exactly how the last little bit of progression will be.”
Braves manager Walt Weiss said Tuesday that Baldwin could return “the next homestand, or maybe there’s a chance on that homestand,” and Braves president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos said on BravesVision on Sunday that Baldwin could return mid-June.
But the oblique is a finicky injury, one that caused Braves right-handed pitcher Spencer Strider to reset and start from scratch during spring training before he made his 2026 debut May 3.
Baldwin said all he can do now is rest and let the muscle heal. He can throw a baseball, sure, but hasn’t yet picked up a bat and resumed swinging.
“I just know that there’s a lot of variables, so there’s not, like, a set date or anything,” he said. “It’s just trying to get back as soon as possible but still being able to play at 100% when I do get back.”
Baldwin has played in 48 games this season. He was hitting .303 with an OPS of .932 before the injury. His 38 RBIs and 13 home runs are still the third-most in baseball among catchers, and his 57 hits are the second most.
The Braves (41-20) haven’t really missed a beat without Baldwin, going 9-4 in the 13 games he has missed. Catchers Sandy León and Chadwick Tromp are a combined 5-for-43 with 15 strikeouts since Baldwin went on the IL, yet the Braves have scored 5.5 runs per game.
“Sometimes the math doesn’t add up in this game. Some things don’t make sense,” Weiss said. “Take out your really best hitter, and you start to score more runs, and then it doesn’t make any sense. I think it speaks to the depth of the team, the depth of the roster. The guys that have stepped up that maybe we weren’t necessarily counting on as heavily when we broke camp, and they’ve become a big part of our team, a big part of our offense. I think more than anything it speaks to the depth of this team.”
When Baldwin was a sophomore in high school, he had a quad injury during hockey season (side note: It was Drake Baldwin hockey jersey night at Truist on Wednesday) that kept him off the ice for some time. But he has never had a baseball injury sideline him for a period like this and has never been on the injured list during his short MLB career.
That, more than the injury itself, has been the toughest part.
“It’s different, for sure. It’s tough watching the game and knowing that there’s nothing you really you can do about it,” Baldwin said. “Obviously, at, like, home games, you’re watching for, I don’t know, tendencies or whatever it may be. But just trying to stay as locked in as you can even though you know you can’t really affect the game day in, day out.
“Just having no control during the game, honestly. Knowing that, like, I’m not gonna go up and hit in four games, or whatever it may be, or I don’t know, like, call, call a game. Routines are just a little different. But just makes you want to get back that much faster.”
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