San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Why Joey Bart should be Giants’ Opening Night catcher
Opportunity knocks, with a big Louisville Slugger, on the door of Farhan Zaidi, Gabe Kapler and Giants ownership.
If the Giants’ brain trust hears the knocking, they will put catching prospect Joey Bart on the 30man roster and pencil him into the lineup on a regular basis, starting Thursday against the Dodgers in Los Angeles for Opening Night.
Alas, all indications are that the Giants will send Bart to West Sacramento to join the Giants’ JV squad.
If this disappoints you, join the club. Giants players, most recently Evan Longoria and Wilmer Flores, are strongly vouching for Bart’s abilities.
Typically, veteran players couch their praise, but at least some of the Giants seem ready and willing to take the field with this guy. When he is relegated to Sacramento, you can bet the phrase “servicetime manipulation” will be in the wind.
Whether it’s a servicetime issue or a belief that Bart isn’t quite ready, keeping him off the big team seems logical and wise, in a business way. Because the season is scheduled for 60 games, the Giants will have to keep Bart off their majorleague roster only five games to deny him one full season of service.
That makes business sense, especially when you factor in the risk that the season could end before five games are played, as Andrew Baggarly of the Athletic points out, in which case a rookie opening the season with the big club would get credit for an entire season toward free agency by playing one or two games.
But that scenario is a long shot, and this would be a great time for Zaidi and the Giants to throw their cold logic and wellcrunched financial numbers out the window. Not just for the sake of the hungryforaction fans and players, and to make Bart happy, but for their own good.
Zaidi, Kapler and whoever’s calling the money shots upstairs — is it still Larry Baer? — are all on probation. Trust in them is not overflowing.
The team is still in rebuilding mode, but players and fans want to start seeing a structure rise above all the construction dust and noise. Catcher Buster Posey’s decision to take the season off has provided the perfect opportunity for the Giants to give the construction gawkers something to see: Bart.
Zaidi could tell the fans, essentially, You folks have put up with three rough seasons in a row, a lot of losing and boring baseball, washed down with $10 beers. This looks like it could be another rough season. You want to get excited, enthusiastic, hopeful, right? We hear you. We’re going to give Joey a shot.
Instead, Kapler and Zaidi are sending a clear message.
“From a bigger perspective, he’s got a lot of development left,” Kapler said recently of Bart. “More reps to develop both behind the plate in calling the game and working with pitchers and from a plateappearance perspective. More development will certainly serve Joey well.” Agreed. And I know just the place where Bart could get that development — behind the plate at Oracle Park. Maybe one or two of Kapler’s 13 (13!) coaches could give young Joey some extra attention, to goose his learning curve. (When video of Bart gunning down a wouldbe basestealer Thursday circulates, a lot of opposing baserunners will be willing to give Bart gas money for a trip to Sacramento.)
The old developintheminors thing might have some cred in normal times, but Normal Times took the last Greyhound out of town. There are no minors, only scrimmagelike events in Sacramento against the same crew of notquitebigleague pitchers.
Hello! Bart has explosive power, which is as rare around Oracle Park as a pottytrained seagull. If he’s not ready to catch every day, pencil him in at DH. It’s not as if the Giants are overstocked with dynamic, pulverizing DHs.
What if Bart struggles? Olde Baseball Wisdom says that if a player is brought up too soon and struggles, his spirit will be broken forever. I guess that’s why we never heard from that Willie Mays kid again after he went 1for26 in his first week in the bigs. Mays was 20 back then. Bart is 23. At 20, Mike Trout finished second in AL MVP voting. Ready is ready, and there’s only one test.
If the Giants delay Bart’s free agency a year by jiggering his service time, they might save a pile of money, but how favorably disposed will Bart be to resign with the Giants when his freedom finally arrives?
Last point: What if the Giants suit him up and, despite having a lot to learn, Bart catches pretty well and hits up a storm? What if the 2020 Joey Bart is the 2010 Buster Posey? How did that underdog team do?
Time to put business, analytics and Olde Baseball thinking aside, and let Joey come out and play.