Drake Baldwin will DH on Opening Day, Jonah Heim will catch

ATLANTA, GEORGIA - SEPTEMBER 26: Drake Baldwin #30 of the Atlanta Braves hits against the Pittsburgh Pirates in the fifth inning at Truist Park on September 26, 2025 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Brett Davis/Getty Images) | Getty Images Earlier today, new manager Walt Weiss spoke with the media ahead of his debut as manager of the Atlanta Braves. We’ll have more to talk about later as far as quotes from him (and Chris Sale and Matt Olson as well) but for now, the biggest news of that presser is that we got a bit of an idea of what the lineup is going to look like tomorrow.

Weiss told the media that Drake Baldwin will be in the lineup as the DH for Opening Day against the Royals. Jonah Heim will be the starting catcher for Opening Day as well. This’ll be Heim’s first Opening Day start since 2024 when he was with the Texas Rangers and although he’s clearly being utilized in a bit of a depth situation while Sean Murphy continues to be on the mend, Heim should still be pretty excited about being the backstop for Opening Day.

This also means that Walt Weiss is going to try to get Baldwin’s bat in there as much as he possibly can as evidenced by the Designated Hitter appearance. This also means that he’s sticking to his guns when it comes to keeping Mike Yastrzemski from starting against lefties, as he would’ve been a prime candidate for the DH role heading into this season. Walt Weiss also mentioned that Ronald Acuña Jr.

would be batting leadoff and indicated that that’ll probably be where he stays. “First thing I said to him [in an office meeting] was ‘Do you want to hit first, second, or third? ” So based on the fact that it now seems all-but-confirmed that Acuña will be leading off thanks to Weiss’s comments following that little question, it sure seems like Acuña will be at the top of the order as well and starting in right field.