LOS ANGELES – Missouri State’s Drake Baldwin was selected by the Atlanta Braves in the third round (96th overall) of the 2022 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft on Tuesday as the fifth catcher taken of the board.
He becomes the highest-drafted catcher in school history, surpassing Drew Millas, who was a seventh-round pick of Oakland in 2019, and is also MSU’s highest overall pick since Jeremy Eierman went in the second round to Oakland in 2018.
Baldwin batted .341 with 19 home runs and 70 RBI for the Bears in 2022 with multiple hits 26 times and two-plus RBI on 17 occasions as well as a trio of multi-homer games. The junior from Madison, Wis., led the Bears with a .448 on-base percentage and reached safely in 57 of 60 contests, including a 30-game streak, and his RBI total tied for seventh in school history for a season. He is also MSU’s career fielding percentage leader at .994.
The Madison, Wis., product was an American Baseball Coaches Association South All-Region First Team member and second-team all-Missouri Valley Conference selection in 2002.
