In search to replace Posey, Bart not a likely choice
Joey Bart as the Opening Day catcher? Not so fast. President of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi on Friday dampened the notion of the 2018 firstround draft pick starting the 60game season on the 30man roster. Zaidi also said he might go outside the organization to acquire a more experienced replacement.
One highly regarded free agent who remains unsigned is 37yearold Russell Martin, who played for the Dodgers last year. Dodgers teammates have publicly lobbied for the team to bring him back for 2020.
When asked about Bart, Zaidi offered the same caveat as in spring training, saying the organization loves his progress, but he could use more development before be debuts with the Giants.
Zaidi called the summer camp “a tough environment to evaluate young position players that you maybe went into the situation thinking they need more competitive reps at DoubleA or TripleA.”
“A guy hits the ball 430 feet. That’s all well and good, but it’s no substitution for getting the 100, 200, 300 atbats you might get in DoubleA or TripleA and getting a sense that a guy is capable of handling majorleague pitching on a dayin, dayout basis.”
The problem in 2020 is there will be no Doubleor TripleA, although Bart could gain equivalent experience playing in taxisquad camp games once the current player pool is pared to 30 for the July 23 opener. Baseball officials are still considering an Arizona Fall League this year.
The Giants need another catcher soon just to work the large number of pitchers in summer camp. But they might feel compelled to get a more seasoned guy for such a critical position.
Their decision not to resign Stephen Vogt after the 2019 season left them with virtually no bigleague experience behind Posey.
Rob Brantley, 30, leads with 429 plate appearances, but 356 of those were in 2012 and 2013 with Miami. He had one atbat for manager Gabe Kapler’s Phillies last year and struck out.
Other internal options include 29yearold minorleague journeyman Tyler Heineman and Chadwick Tromp, 25, who was a promising Reds prospect until he required shoulder surgery.
The other catcher in camp is Patrick Bailey, who was drafted a month ago and should not be in the conversation for the start of the 2020 season.
Zaidi noted that all of these catchers will benefit from extra reps in camp that could impact the club’s near and longterm assessment of their futures.
“We’re going to be reevaluating options internally and externally over the next few days and figure this out,” Zaidi said.