Drake Baldwin once again ranks as the Braves top prospect
As prospect season continues yet another major top 100 dropped on Wednesday, with ESPN insider Kiley McDaniel releasing his preseason list. McDaniel is one of the most trusted sources of prospect information in the business, and he thinks highly of the Atlanta Braves’s top two position players.
Coming in at 44th is catcher Drake Baldwin, who has become the near-unanimously top-ranked prospect in Atlanta’s system following a breakout season in 2024. Baldwin found himself near the top of near all of the Triple-A Statcast leaderboards, putting up incredible contact rates and exit velocities along with an improvement in his approach that saw him vault from a player with a backup projection to one seen as a potential impact bat for a catcher. Some disagreement still exists on his potential behind the plate — McDaniel giving a more conservative evaluation — though he has improved significantly from fringe pre-draft defensive grades to a player who is expected to stick behind the plate despite arm accuracy issues plaguing him.
Nacho Alvarez also lands a top 100 ranking at 85th, with McDaniel raving (as the numbers do) about Alvarez’s on base skill. Alvarez may not stick at shortstop, especially following a late-season move that saw him spend the last month at third base, but there is no doubt he can make contact at a high rate. Alvarez needs to improve his ability to make an impact on fastballs, and his bat speed and power will limit his upside, but he had a power breakout in Gwinnett last season with 10 home runs in 64 games after just eight in his prior 194 career games. Alvarez created doubt with a terrible performance in Atlanta in a small sample last year, but his advancement through the system has been far swifter than expected and he will just turn 22 on April 11th. There is still time for Alvarez to figure things out and make more of an impact offensively, and he does profile as a plus glove at third, but a move off of shortstop would create playing time issues in Atlanta with Austin Riley firmly holding to that position.