Drake Baldwin hit another homer on Saturday, his 18th of the season in 415 plate appearances. He’s played a solid defensive catcher and is now running a 120 wRC+ on the season (while dramatically underproducing his xwOBA), splitting time at catcher, DH, and as a pinch-hitter. That’s good for 2.7 fWAR and potentially more valuable than that due to the difficulty of being a catcher and the role they play in working with pitchers. That puts him tied for the NL lead among rookies for fWAR with Caleb Durbin, who has achieved a lucky 110 wRC+ and has generally been modestly good in every aspect of the game, but nothing special. Cade Horton is the favorite, putting up a 2.66 ERA for the wild-card Cubs over 115.0 innings. Horton has been much worse than his ERA, however, with a 3.53 FIP, 3.82 xERA, and 4.29 xFIP. The primary impressive aspect of his profile is his low walk rate, but it’s absolutely necessary to him with his low strikeout rate. As someone who would like to see justice done and for the Braves to get an extra valuable draft pick in the next draft, I hope voters can look deeper than Horton’s ERA and vote for Baldwin, who has put together the most impressive season of the NL Rookies.
