Samardzija, Mr. Old School, endorses Kapler

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Jeff Samardzija’s wit is in midseason form.

As he checked into Scottsdale Stadium for Tuesday’s pitchercatcher report date, he said, “Once we figure out who the minorleague invites are and who the coaches are, we’ll go from there.”

Actually, Samardzija said he has had good talks with his new pitching coach, Andrew Bailey, not to mention a lot of face time with manager Gabe Kapler. Samardzija lives in San Francisco yearround, which enabled the two to talk often.

That was shrewd of Kapler, who had to know that Samardzija has not been a fan of newage, metrically driven philosophies and managers. He said so publicly and privately last year.

In spring training, Samardzija said that once Bruce Bochy retired, the game would be left with “30 puppets” as managers. That presumably included Kapler, who was one of the other 29 at the time.

If Kapler can gain Samardzija’s stamp of approval, he probably can win over anyone. So far, Samardzija is saying the right things about his new skipper.

“We hung out a lot. He’s good,” Samardzija said. “I’m excited for the young guys to be around him, and he’s going to be a great liaison for those guys to figure out what it’s going to take to be successful here.

“There are a lot of ways to skin a cat, and I’m excited to see his way.”

Samardzija was influenced partly by what he views as a shared desire to field a team full of grinders.

“I’m a pretty oldschool guy,” he said. “I like talent. I love finding diamonds in the rough. I think that’s important and necessary to win and do the things you want to do. When it comes down to it, you’ve got to have some dogs out there who love playing.” Posey’s backup: Buster Posey’s health and production, Joey Bart’s development and the backup catching competition might seemed intertwined, but the Giants see them as three distinct issues.

President of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi expects Bart to start the season in the minors to gain more experience, and Kapler said Tuesday that Posey’s immediate future will not be impacted by Aramis Garcia’s justannounced hip surgery, which will cost him most of the 2020 season.

“The fact that Garcia is undergoing surgery and will be lost for a while is really a separate issue from Buster’s health,” Kapler said. “Obviously, no matter who the backup is, our game plan will be to have Buster on the field as much as possible.”

The leading backup candidates are switchhitting minorleague journeyman Tyler Heineman and Rob Brantly, who spent two seasons (201213) with the Marlins and was in the Phillies’ system last year, and thus is someone Kapler knows.

However, common sense suggests the front office will continue to search for more experienced help. Giants sign Cahill: The Giants added another former Oakland pitcher to their spring invite list, signing former A’s starter and Cubs reliever Trevor Cahill to a minorleague deal. Cahill joins former teammate Andrew Triggs, also here on a minorleague deal. Andrew Bailey ,a former teammate of Cahill, is the Giants’ pitching coach.

Cahill struggled with the Angels last year, with a 5.98 ERA in 1021⁄3 innings as a starter and reliever.