Braves catcher Drake Baldwin is the 2025 National League Rookie of the Year, the Baseball Writers Association of America announced. Cade Horton of the Cubs and Caleb Durbin of the Brewers finished second and third in the voting, respectively. Baldwin’s win will net Atlanta a bonus draft pick after the first round in 2026, via the Prospect Promotion Incentive. Horton earns a full year of service time from his top two finish. The full voting results can be found here.
Baldwin came into the year as one of the top prospects in baseball. Since he finished the 2024 season at Triple-A, he had a shot at a big league job to start 2025. However, Atlanta was set to open the season with Sean Murphy as the primary backstop. Rather than be a backup at the major league level, there was an argument for Baldwin to stick at Triple-A and get regular reps.
In early March, Murphy suffered a rib fracture, an injury with a timeline of four to six weeks. That opened the door for Baldwin to get an Opening Day job. He hit well in the spring and Atlanta added him to the roster prior to Opening Day. Though Murphy got healthy by early April, Baldwin had already started producing and he never really stopped. The two shared the catching duties fairly evenly for a few months, though Murphy returned to the injured list in September due to a right hip labral tear.
Baldwin finished the year with 446 plate appearances over 124 games. He hit 19 home runs and slashed .274/.341/.469 for a wRC+ of 125. That means he was 25% better than the league average hitter, though that’s even further above par for a catcher. Most outlets considered his defense to be a bit below average, but not by much. FanGraphs credited him with 3.1 wins above replacement on the year.
While Baldwin’s win is surely gratifying for him personally, it also benefits the team. The current collective bargaining agreement introduced measures to combat service time manipulation. If a team promotes a top prospect early enough for him to earn a full service year, then that player meets certain awards criteria, the team is awarded with an extra pick just after the first round in the next draft. Since Baldwin was a consensus top prospect who was up all year, his Rookie of the Year win gives Atlanta a PPI bonus pick in 2026.
Horton also came into the season as one of the top prospects. He had finished 2024 at Triple-A but with just five appearances at that level. He was sent back to Triple-A to start 2025 but the Cubs needed rotation help fairly early on, as Justin Steele and Shota Imanaga were both on the injured list by early May.
Horton was called up on May 10th. He stayed up with the club the rest of the way, though a rib fracture put him on the injured list late in September. He finished the season with 118 innings pitched, having allowed 2.67 earned runs per nine.
There was probably some luck in there. Horton’s 20.4% strikeout rate was subpar, though his 6.9% walk rate was good and his 42.3% ground ball rate right around average. His .258 batting average on balls in play and 78.3% strand rate were both to the fortunate side. ERA estimators like his 3.58 FIP and 4.26 SIERA feel his ERA should have been around a run higher, though the performance was still good enough for a second-place finish in the voting.
That is significant for Horton, as there’s a flipside to the aforementioned PPI bonuses for teams. If a top prospect is not promoted early enough in the season to get a full service year, he can earn one retroactively with a top-two finish in the Rookie of the Year voting. Horton only earned 142 service days this year, 30 shy of the 172 needed for a full season, but this vote result will get him bumped up to the one-year mark. That means he will be on pace to become a free agent after 2030 instead of 2031.
Durbin was not a top prospect to open the year, meaning PPI wasn’t a factor for him, but he had a good season regardless. Acquired from the Yankees last offseason, he was called up in April and took over the third base job in Milwaukee. He appeared in 136 games and stepped to the plate 506 times. He hit just 11 home runs and didn’t walk much but rarely struck out, leading to a .256/.334/.387 line and 105 wRC+. He also stole 18 bases and was credited with five Defensive Runs Saved and two Outs Above Average at the hot corner.
Several other players also received some recognition from the voters. Isaac Collins of the Brewers finished fourth, followed by Daylen Lile of the Nationals, Agustín Ramírez of the Marlins, Chad Patrick of the Brewers, Jakob Marsee of the Marlins, Jack Dreyer of the Dodgers, Matt Shaw of the Cubs, Jacob Misiorowski of the Brewers, Nolan McLean of the Mets and Heriberto Hernández of the Marlins.
Photo courtesy of Geoff Burke, Jordan Godfree, Isaiah J. Downing, Jeff Hanisch, Imagn Images
Well deserved kid was solid all season. Congrats to him and the Braves for believing in him from
Day 1 of the season and not playing games because of service time. Win for the team win for baseball.
Rake!!!!
Rightfully so
gave up most stolen bases in baseball on a underperforming team. Numbers were just ok
awesome draft ramifications, bonus pool money too i assume?
Yes they will get extra money for that slot value
Cade got screwed!
No he didn’t.
Of course he did. Baldwin had a nice season and I understand that catchers don’t normally hit that well, but come on..Horton was magnificent in the 2nd half of the season.
Horton was very good after the All Star break, but he only threw 61 1/3 innings in 12 appearances. Nowhere near enough to win the award. The only surprise about Baldwin winning it is that Horton got 9 of the 30 1st place votes.
Why? He still gets the full year of service time.
Pitchers play every 5th day. They should just create 2 ROY’s in each league. 1 for pitchers and 1 for position players.
Tell that to Yamamoto! Meanwhile, Horton can’t help that. He can only pitch when his turn comes up. And when his did, Horton was outstanding.
No, he did not. Baldwin was a difference maker at a premier defensive position for 124 games. Horton pitched 23 games. That is a 101 game difference. Baldwin was more impactful for the whole season than Horton was.
Horton is involved in every play as pitcher while on the mound. On defense Baldwin only matters if they hit it near him as an argument for pitchers over positional.
Catchers are involved in every pitch as well.
You didn’t know Baldwin is a catcher, did you?
Forget it, he’s rolling.
Lmao
What “difference” did the difference maker make to help the Braves win games? While I know what you are trying to say, he didn’t make a meaningful difference for a below average Braves team this year. His stats were good though and he deserved the award.
No player on the field has nearly as much influence on the game as the pitcher. Not even close. Yet as you point out, a regular position player can make contributions every day – where a pitcher can not.
It’s just an apples to oranges thing. Baldwin absolutely deserves this award. I could be talked into a separate award for rookie pitchers though.
And let’s not forget that pitchers impact far more than just when they are on the mound. Every inning that a pitchers team can rely on him means less impact on the other pitchers, which can absolutely help the team even when he is not pitching.
Need to just have separate awards. And wow, what a huge penalty for the Cubs, or am I missing something. He certainly helped them, but enough to offset losing a year of control? Or do they get a PPI pick also and it’s just not mentioned?
Difference maker? Last I checked the Braves were out of contention early and he caught meaningless games. While Cade made one of the best runs in baseball to carry a struggling O to the play offs and they fell flat after his injury. So define difference maker?
Eric… It’s not as cut and dried as you want to make it. If it’s just a stats award, then Baldwin gets it. If actual value to a team’s record is considered- and apparently, it’s not- then you have to give more credence to Horton. The fact is, the Cubs absolutely don’t get to the playoffs without him. And while the writer wants to skew his stats toward ‘lucky’, the fact is that his overall numbers for his season don’t reflect the incredible second half he had.
Difference maker? Where did Atlanta finish? Cade Horton was one of the main horses that allowed the Cubs to get into the playoffs. And if you’re going to comment on Baldwin playing a premiere defensive position, you better make sure he’s actually good at it first. Other than blocking balls in the dirt, his defensive metrics are terrible.
Who is this Paige Leckie that forgot all about Horton?
Mike—just unbelievable. I fully understand Horton not winning. The last thing in the mind of the voters was him missing his last two starts due to injury and that probably squashed his chances.
But—to not be included in the top five is completely ludicrous and a lack of diligence in reviewing the season prior to the vote.
Only thing that was good for the Cubs was that he did not get a full year of service time. Both kids did fine. Cade did more for his team to be relevant vs a joke team giving wins away.
Horton does get a full year of service time by finishing second.
“There was probably some luck in there. Horton’s 20.4% strikeout rate was subpar, “
He was forced into contact due to his pitch count limits. He was at 80 then it dropped to 60 So to get 5-6 innings he had to utilize the best D in baseball more that normal. When you have that some weak contact is your best friend.
ohmy, that is higher than Grag Maddux’s career strikeout rate by about 4%
rememberthecoop
Baldwin was there all season, where was Horton, how many starts did he make?
Cade certainly did not get screwed, Baldwin deserved it, end of story.
Furthermore, whilst Horton is good, he went 7 innings in only one start out of 22, and he went 6ip, 4 times out of 22. He went less than 5 innings 6 times.
Drake Baldwin played in 124 games.
It is not even close.
Baldwin saved our season! Well, would have…
Giving up the most stolen bags is not helping your team. It is giving runners the green light
Horton got robbed. Baldwin had a nice season at the plate but defensively people ran on him all year long.
Baldwin was better, but Horton only played part of the season. It may have been a different story if Horton pitched the whole season.
Horton came up in early May, had 28 starts and had a 2.67 ERA in 118 innings pitched. That was simply because the Cubs had him on a pitch count. The guy was dominant most of his starts.
Baldwin had a nice season at the plate but was below average defensively and couldn’t throw a runner out to save his life.
Couldn’t throw a runner out?
Below average K rate doesn’t make him “dominant.” Guess you could say Horton couldn’t K batters at a rate above average “to save his life.”
His full stat line does.
Cade had a 3.58 FiP, and when combined with his below-average K-rate, he really benefited from 3 GGs behind him (Nico, Happ, PCA — not to mention Dansby) to help strand those runners, which is why there’s such a large gap b/w his FiP and ERA (2.67). His defense was dominant.
Horton only had 22 starts in the MLB. Good season, but normally that is not enough for a ROY.
Yes. He led the league in steals allowed with 88
Baldwin gave up the most stolen bases of any catcher in Major league baseball. That is the definition of not being able to throw out a runner to save your life. Pitchers don’t have to strike everyone out to be dominant. But a 2.67 ERA over 118 innings pitched is dominant, regardless of how he got people out.
Baldwin played the full season. That is the only reason why he won. He was never the best Rookie
@CFS77 – Weak argument that takes away from Drake’s accomplishment. Baldwin was a backup C, late-game replacement and eventually DH hitting in middle of the order b/c of his bat. Another finalist, Durbin, had 50+ more PA than Drake, but Drake was more productive. Cade played pre-AS Break and was pedestrian, at best, before having 14 amazing GS post-AS Break until he landed on the IL to finish the year. IF Horton was anywhere near as good in the first half as the second, he would have won. He played…just not well enough. Durbin played in more games than Drake…just not well enough.
People run on most catchers all year long now.
Yep. The bigger bases and rule not allowing pitchers to throw over more than twice w/out repercussion guaranteed stolen base totals would skyrocket. Catchers are also at the mercy of their pitchers delivery time to home.
Also, ATL SP did a terrible job of preventing SB and holding runners on base, as a whole. For example, they had 4 SP (Sale, Strider, Elder, AJSS) in the bottom 88 of MLB in Net Bases Prevented. Quite a change when Fried was #2 in MLB with a generational pickoff move that left runners closer to 1B than their mam-maws.
Boy, are you guys rationalizing. There were actually catchers- a number of them- that threw out runners last season. Yes, even with the new rules and with pitching staffs that weren’t the best at holding runners. The Cubs had 2 of them and they weren’t even all stars. It does matter.
You’re not bad at “rationalizing” yourself— as shown by your comments about Horton and the Cubs making the playoffs giving him “more credence” and his “incredible” 2nd half despite having mediocre underlying stats overall. His 61 1/3 strong innings after the AS break were half of his total innings pitched. How do you dismiss the other half? Your rationalization accusation conveniently ignored that none of the “guys” claimed that throwing out runners doesn’t matter.
Only a serious “homer” would use the word “accusation” like he was accused of a crime?? Jeez, it’s all gonna be ok, Jeff.
No problem, just refuting your strawman argument that one of us said “it doesn’t matter” w/regard to catchers throwing out runners.
game is changing. challenge system will make framing useless.
Tissue?
There’s always something you can pick on a player for.
DMC nailed it on Horton. Low strikeout rate, low BABIP against, high strand rate and meanwhile three gold gloves and gold glove caliber short stop behind him. Baldwin won it legitimately.
Cubs got more control from Horton with the loss. That would have given Cade a full year. So that is a mixed bag TBH. He deserved it for sure but that loses a year of control
He gets a full year of service time for being a top-two finisher, so he hits free agency after 2030 instead of after 2031
And that’s going to affect those 2032 Cubs that we’ve heard so much about.
Does Sean Murphy become a trade candidate now? ATL can free up some $ for other needs.
Definitely a possibility for a Murphy trade, but I think he will stay on the team. It can be beneficial to have a couple of quality catchers to sub out catching and DH.
Coming off an injury, question marks, and his fairly expensive salary I am not sure Murphy has as much trade value as many Joe fans would think he does.
Murphy often injured batted under .200 two years running and has an enormous contract — I think Braves are stuck with him until he gets himself a better batting line
3 years at 45 million is not an enormous contract
for an oft-injured, K’s like mad, cannot hit over .200 for 2 years now. He looks like a bust to teams why spend $15m – they will wait to see if he can turn it around first. His glove ain’t as golden as it once was
$15 million for a catcher is NOT cheap either.
Who’s still amassed about 8 WAR over the last 3 years. It’s not as bad as your making it sound. His cap figure is only 3/36 too.
Anyone else find it funny that all you hear every single year is how bad the Braves farm system is but yet every year the Braves have one of the top few ROY candidates? Just in the past few years you have Harris, Strider, Swelly, Baldwin and without his injury AJSS would have been in the top few this year too. That still leaves out Waldrep who was called up late. Heck date it back to Acuna and it’s crazy the amount talent the horrrible Braves farm system produces every single year.
“Who’s still amassed about 8 WAR over the last 3 years.”
Mostly because of what he did nearly three seasons ago. The last two years he’s averaged 83 games, 1.8 WAR, and a .676 OPS. No one is banging down the Braves door to give up any good prospects for a $15 million/year catcher who plays have the time and can’t hit above league average. It makes sense for everyone for Murphy to stay put. Murphy can work on getting healthy and returning to form and the Braves can have two catchers, which is almost a necessity in today’s game.
Oft-injured…? Look at his career as a whole and he’s not, he’s had 1 lingering injury and played, reportedly, with a bad hip for 3 years, while hitting 20 HR. That could be why he was hitting below Mendoza line last 2 years — imagine playing/catching with a bad hip, if true. If that offseason surgery corrected the hip issue and he’s healthy most of the season while he’s still in his prime, that 15M is not much. ATL won’t trade him while his value is low, but though his glove isn’t THE best, he still ranks near the top (with that bad hip, remember). Not to mention Waldrep has said on record that Murph helped him develop his out-pitch that essentially saved his career, while Drake credited Murph during his ROY acceptance speech, and Murph calls all Sale’s games.
Murphy is having offseason surgery. Its an issue he informed the team about this year but has been hampering him for the last 2-3 years. If he is traded now they would probably have to sell low, look for more of a mid season trade if he gets traded would be my guess. That should give him time to get healthy, get some games in and build value. I would prefer to keep him as having two good catchers has proven beneficial in the past but this can be viewed as a luxury if they need to address payroll or other team needs.
I dont think he will he traded unless someone is a little motivated to get him. Right now, his value to the Braves is probably a lot higher than it would be to other teams. DMC pointed to his intangibles which is the big reason why.
Detractors point to his batting average as a draw back and while I think nobody wants to bat bellow .200, batting average isnt as important as it used to be and even more so at premium defensive positions.
I’m going to see how he bounces back from hip surgery before I make any judgements on HOW valuable he is.
his 105 K in ~300 ABs — that is a really bad
has not played over 108 in 3 years, and only once got over 120 games
He is a P/T catcher – His walks and his 10-18 HRs is what you can expect.
If he can recover from some injuries and at least show his 2023 game maybe the Braves keep or deal for something.
I figured it would go to Horton, though I thought Baldwin was more deserving. Glad that I was wrong!
Awful decision. Horton was much more deserving but Brave favoritism comes through again.
The only correct decision
Never Remember alias blackpink (and countless other previously banned screen names) is a Cards fan. His schtick is trolling every other team’s articles and banning any and all who dare to disagree w/his lunacy.
Hahah Braves favoritism? Put down the crack pipe.
More truth to that than you know if that troll is to be believed. He used to whine about no one respecting him because he’s a former drug addict. Blackpink is a seriously disturbed troll.
@Lee: Yep. That’s him.
As expected. Congrats to the Braves and to Drake. Horton was definitely getting second place.
Hell yeah
Here’s why Horton didn’t get screwed: He got called up in May, and was more or less knocked around through June. Then he posted a sub-2.00 ERA in each of the final three months. That was an amazing stretch, but it was also just 73 innings—basically 5 innings per start.
Baldwin was a good offensive catcher beginning in April.
Well deserved. Interesting side note to all the ROY coverage. Only three AL catchers have ever won the award, Fisk, Alomar, Jr. and Munson, while Baldwin is the 7th NL catcher to be honored.
I think he deserved it. Very solid rookie class in both leagues.
4 Brewers rookies in the top 10; Durbin, Collins, Patrick and Miz.
Nice! I was correct!
So was I, but I was afraid I was just being a hopeful Braves fan. Feels like it’s the first thing they won this year. Good start to their off season.
They just wanted PPI to not look like a stupid idea that actually keeps prospects in the minors for longer
So the Miz got an All-Star nod but only garnered 2 points in ROY voting… talk about a fall off.
Miz got injured and skipped rehab, recovered in MLB. Looked nasty in the playoffs. No fall off. Though the all-star nod was premature.
Miz’ first 3 starts was record breaking all time. He put up a 0 at AS game. Blame the I dunno 10? ish pitchers who declined/weren’t willing to go as well. It’s not like he was first in line.
He did nothing to earn that all star appearance. Sorry but after only 5 starts. That’s ridiculous. By the end of the year in the playoffs he came into games as a relief pitcher. He fell off significantly
Except the storyline on his starts leading up to that point was a SP who was the best rookie SP ever in history of MLB who consistently threw 100+MPH pitches. He only pitched around 100 innings total in 2024. So of course he was going to tire out remaining a starter every 5 days. Fact is, he’ll return to the All Star game in his career unless he shrugs the invite off like the 10 other players asked before him.
4 Brewers got votes… is that a record for one team?
Horton deserved the award
Cade Horton got snubbed
He got 9 of the 30 first place votes. Hardly snubbed. He just lost to a more deserving candidate.
People aren’t talking enough that the Marlins had three guys in the mix… if Marsee was in the shoes early, he was a favorite. Future is bright in Miami
In his last 14 starts Cade Horton had a 1.34 ERA. And yet there was a west coast writer who didn’t even have Horton on her ballot! How stupid is that?.Someone like that should lose their voting privileges for life. Clueless. And again, Cade got royally screwed.
She was representing the Washington Nationals, which when I consult a map, turns out dont play on the West Coast at all
Horton hears a Hoo, as in WHO won ROY???
The most deserving candidate won, that’s who. Try shelving your Cubs bias and looking at the entirety of Horton’s season. He had a good 2nd half that (according to the voters) didn’t overshadow how poor the other half of his total innings pitched were. 21 of 30 voters felt he didn’t do enough to beat out Baldwin. Horton didn’t “get screwed.”
Says the Braves fan
Yeah the Braves fan said Baldwin got 21 of 30 1st place votes. That indicates they felt Baldwin deserved to win. Facts.
Oh the irony
Oh the troll sarcasm.
So while the Braves developed Baldwin, Contreras and Langeliers, were somehow stuck with Murphy and his contract. I don’t hate Sean Murphy, but I never understood that trade. That was the first “???” moment for AA to me. He’s stacking them up now
Drake Baldwin is not like Howie Kendrick. Or us
I caught him at a minor league game last year in Jacksonville and I said to myself he’s going to be a good Major League player and boy did he prove me right such great plate discipline. Fun fact Tyler Matzek closed for that game against the jumbo shrimp.
Well deserve, and not to take away from the others but the voting accurately showed how much of a landslide it should have been
For what hoyer gave up to get him, was 1/2 year of Tucker worth it when good enough enough for playoffs but that’s about it?
I have to love all the whining Cubs fans whining about Horton not getting it.
Baldwin was there all season, where was Horton, how many starts did he make?
Baldwin deserved it, end of story.
Furthermore, whilst Horton is good, he went 7 innings in only one start out of 22, and he went 6ip, 4 times out of 22. He went less than 5 innings 6 times.
Drake Baldwin played in 124 games, hit .274 19 hr OBP .341, he also hit .319 with risp. Tell me more about how Horton ‘should have won’. Baldwin’s achievements thus far are far superior to that of Horton.