It’s been a banner year for the men behind the plate when at the plate – Cal Raleigh is a pair of big flies away from an unfathomable 60; Hunter Goodman will finish with around half that, but his longball tally has already established a new high mark for Rockies backstops; 35-year-old Salvador Perez is pushing back against standard aging expectations as he chases down a 30-HR, 100-RBI campaign; Shea Langeliers, like Raleigh and Goodman, is slugging above .500; Will Smith seriously flirted with a .300/.400/.500 campaign; and Agustín Ramírez and Drake Baldwin have assembled HR-RBI numbers that reset the bars for catchers in debut seasons. For Baldwin, it’s part of a package that currently filters to a 3.3 oWAR – a figure that has attached itself to a first-year backstop very few times in baseball history.
Atlanta’s Drake Baldwin went 2-for-4 with a walk, a double and a two-run single. The 24-year-old owns an .806 OPS and has 18 homers and 78 RBI on the season.
~Judging against all first-year catchers (at least 50% of games at catcher), Baldwin is tied for the second most home runs and his 78 RBI are the most. His .806 OPS ties for the second highest (min. 400 plate appearances). A look at all three categories …
Most HRs, First-Year Catcher
21 Agustín Ramírez (2025)
18 Kenji Johjima (2006)
18 MJ Melendez (2022)
18 Drake Baldwin (2025)
Most RBI, First-Year Catcher
78 Drake Baldwin (2025)
76 Kenji Johjima (2006)
69 Butch Wynegar (1976)
Highest OPS, First-Year Catcher
.845 Mickey Cochrane (1925)
.806 Adley Rutschman (2022)
.806 Drake Baldwin (2025)
~Among all Braves first-year players, Baldwin is one of two to get to 18 and 78, along with Wally Berger (38 home runs and 119 RBI in 1930). For all clubs, he is the 49th player to reach these two standards in a debut season; organizing all 49 from highest to lowest OPS, Baldwin’s current .806 fits between Mark Teixeira’s .811 in 2003 and Wally Joyner’s .805 in 1986.
~Baldwin’s 3.3 oWAR has few matches/superiors when it comes to first year catchers. Here’s how Baseball Reference sees it:
Highest oWAR for a First-Year Catcher (at Least 50% of Games Behind the Plate)
4.5 Adley Rutschman in 2022
3.7 Butch Wynegar in 1976
3.7 Kenji Johjima in 2006
3.5 Bill Salkeld in 1945
3.3 Jim Sundberg in 1974
3.3 Drake Baldwin in 2025
2.8 Mickey Cochrane in 1925
2.8 Jason Kendall in 1996
Baldwin’s batterymate Chris Sale fanned six to run his career strikeout tally to 2,570 – the 19th most ever for a pitcher through an age-36 season (he had been tied with 19th century right-hander Tim Keefe, at 2,564). Among Sale and the 18 others who amassed more punchouts at this point, the current Brave claims the highest strikeout percentage.
Highest K% Through Age-36 Season, Min. 2,570 Strikeouts
30.7 Chris Sale
29.4 Max Scherzer
29.3 Randy Johnson
27.8 Pedro Martínez
27.4 Clayton Kershaw
~Among pitchers with at least 300 starts through their age-36 seasons, Sale’s 1.046 WHIP is the fourth lowest (behind marks from Ed Walsh, Clayton Kershaw and Walter Johnson) and his 141 ERA+ ranks as the ninth best, between Cy Young’s 143 and the 139 from Kid Nichols and Carl Hubbell. Besides Young, the other seven ahead: Kershaw (156), Walter Johnson (155), Pedro Martínez (154), Lefty Grove (150), Roger Clemens (147), Walsh (146) and Greg Maddux (146).
As part of Atlanta’s ninth straight win, Michael Harris II went 3-for-5 with three RBI and three stolen bases – a combo that rarely comes up in a box score. The outfielder is the 39th player since 1901 to have a line featuring three-plus hits, three-plus RBI and three-plus steals and joins Doc Miller in 1911 as the lone representatives of the Braves in this collection.
Rafael Devers hit his 33rd home run, drove in his 106th run and drew his 108th walk of the year. The Giant is one of four players in 2025 to post a 30-100-100 season, joining Juan Soto, Kyle Schwarber and Aaron Judge. It’s been some time since this many have helped define a season, with a quartet last appearing in 2007 (Carlos Peña, David Ortiz, Ryan Howard, Adam Dunn). It’s also been a while since a Giants representative appeared (even one, like Devers, who played elsewhere for part of the season), with Barry Bonds in 2004 the last before Devers.
In a no-decision, Freddy Peralta struck out six to reach 200 strikeouts for the season. The right-hander leads the NL with 17 wins, places fourth with a 2.68 ERA and is fifth with his 201 punchouts. He’s the only NL pitcher who can claim top-five spots in all three Triple Crown categories and is one of four Brewers hurlers ever to pair a 200-strikeout season with at least 17 victories. This quartet, arranged by lowest to highest ERA, looks like this:
2.68 ERA – Freddy Peralta (17 wins, 201 K’s) in 2025
2.79 ERA – Teddy Higuera (20 wins, 207 K’s) in 1986
3.52 ERA – Yovani Gallardo (17 wins, 207 K’s) in 2011
3.85 ERA – Teddy Higuera (18 wins, 240 K’s) in 1987
~Peralta has reached the 200-strikeout mark in three straight seasons, joining Yovani Gallardo (2009-2012) and Corbin Burnes (2021-2023) as Brewers hurlers to assemble at least three straight seasons of 200-plus.
Freddy Fermin’s walk-off single in the bottom of the 11th launched his Padres into the postseason, the franchise’s ninth entry (and second straight) into October baseball. With this particular path, San Diego has made back-to-back postseason berths for the second time, following NL West Division titles in 2005 and 2006.
Luis Arráez’s 173rd hit of the season – a game-tying RBI single in the bottom of the seventh – moved the Padres’ first baseman to within six hits of tying Trea Turner for the NL lead. If Arráez can match/pass Turner (who hasn’t played since September 7) and hold off anyone else to ultimately claim league leadership in hits at year’s end, he’ll be the first player to lead the NL in back to back seasons since Turner himself did it in 2020 and 2021. The others to have done this since the NL first got started way back in 1876.
1994-1995 Tony Gwynn
1991-1992 Terry Pendleton
1986-1987 Tony Gwynn
1972-1973 Pete Rose
1948-1949 Stan Musial
1943-1944 Stan Musial
1940-1941 Stan Hack
1938-1940 Frank McCormick
1936-1937 Joe Medwick
1932-1933 Chuck Klein
1920-1922 Rogers Hornsby
1902-1904 Ginger Beaumont
1897-1898 Willie Keeler
1895-1896 Jesse Burkett
1889-1890 Jack Glasscock
1882-1883 Dan Brouthers
Thanks to Baseball Reference and its extraordinary research database, Stathead, for help in assembling this piece.
Roger Schlueter
As Sr. Editorial Director for Major League Baseball Productions from 2004-2015, Roger served as a hub for hundreds of hours of films, series, documentaries and features: as researcher, fact-checker, script doctor, and developer of ideas. The years at MLB Production gave him the ideal platform to pursue what galvanized him the most – the idea that so much of what takes place on the field during the MLB regular and postseason (and is forever beautifully condensed into a box score) has connections to what has come before. Unearthing and celebrating these webs allows baseball to thrive, for the present can come alive and also reignite the past.