{"id":658558,"date":"2026-04-02T10:50:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T10:50:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/658558\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T10:50:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T10:50:20","slug":"the-case-for-and-against-extending-drake-baldwin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/658558\/","title":{"rendered":"The Case For (and Against) Extending Drake Baldwin"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Since when does Drake Baldwin throw a curveball?<\/p>\n

(Anthopoulogy is Braves Today\u2019s running series where we step into the shoes of President of Baseball Operations Alex Anthopoulos and focus on roster questions \u2014 evaluating trade targets, internal options, lineup usage, and the cost-benefit math behind potential moves. These are shorter, focused breakdowns built around one question at a time.)<\/p>\n

The Atlanta Braves didn\u2019t invent the \u2018low service time\u2019 contract extension, but they\u2019ve certainly had the most success with them. <\/p>\n

Under Alex Anthopoulos, the Braves have given five players who were 26 or younger at the time of signing a long-term extension: Michael Harris II (22),\u00a0Ozzie Albies<\/a>\u00a0(22),\u00a0Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr.<\/a>\u00a0(22),\u00a0Spencer Strider<\/a>\u00a0(24), and\u00a0Austin Riley<\/a>\u00a0(26). Riley was the only one of the group with more than two years of service time when signing the deal. <\/p>\n

Additionally, the Braves acquired and subsequently extended Sean Murphy<\/a> and Matt Olson<\/a> at age 28, Joe Jim\u00e9nez<\/a> at age 29 (technically a re-signing), and Chris Sale<\/a> at the age of 36, as well as several shorter, \u2018year-to-year\u2019 extensions with veterans like Travis d\u2019Arnaud and now- retired Charlie Morton<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Should reigning NL Rookie of the Year Drake Baldwin<\/a> be the next one to sign an early-career extension? Let\u2019s talk about it. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Since when does Drake Baldwin throw a curveball? (Anthopoulogy is Braves Today\u2019s running series where we step into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":658559,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2394],"tags":[191,46,4166,5,192,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-658558","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-braves","8":"tag-atlanta","9":"tag-atlanta-braves","10":"tag-atlantabraves","11":"tag-baseball","12":"tag-braves","13":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116334732248107637","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=658558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/658559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=658558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=658558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=658558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}