Minus Posey, catching takes long view
Weeks before Buster Posey announced he was opting out of the 2020 season, Farhan Zaidi said he was adhering to a baseball adage — “You can never have too much catching” — when using the team’s top draft pick on catcher Patrick Bailey.
If it wasn’t a baseball adage before the Giants’ president of baseball operations came along, it is now.
Posey’s absence leaves the Giants with a major void. Stephen Vogt isn’t around as he was last year to provide experience and a solid bat, and the catching duties for the July 23 opener are up for grabs.
Tyler Heineman and Rob Brantly had been competing for the backup role, but now they’re in the forefront along with Chadwick Tromp, whose bat has put him in the conversation — he homered twice in Sunday’s intrasquad game.
Catching is a shortterm problem for the
Giants. Long term, however, they seem more equipped than most organizations to handle the load.
Kyle Haines, the Giants’ farm director, reiterated Zaidi’s adage in The Chronicle’s “Giants Splash” podcast when discussing the catching depth, which grew with the selection of Bailey and the undrafted freeagent signings of coveted Brett Auerbach of Alabama and USF’s Rob Emery.
Of course, Joey Bart, the second overall pick in the 2018 draft, is among baseball’s top catching prospects.
“There’s no doubt Joey could help the majorleague team in some shape and form probably right now,” Haines said on the podcast, “but at the same time, we don’t want to stall Joey’s development by just wanting to see him in the big leagues before he’s ready.”
With Posey aboard, the plan was for Bart to open the season on the taxi squad and perhaps make his bigleague debut later in the 60game season, but management is considering all options — including bringing in a catcher from the outside.
That may or may not mean a quicker rise to the majors for Bart, but if not, he’ll still experience competition at the Giants’ alternate site in Sacramento, where players in the 60man pool who aren’t on the active roster will work out. Bailey also will be there. “It’s important we learn him and he learns us and that we can help him grow,” Haines said. “He missed all fall ball at N.C. State because he had a broken jaw. Then he went into the spring, and the spring got cut short. So it was important he got back on the field and is getting some developmental reps because otherwise, he’d be almost over a year with very little playing time.”
With the draft shortened to five rounds from 40, the next step was for teams to sign undrafted amateurs, and two of the Giants’ six signings were catchers.
Haines called Auerbach “a huge priority for us. It took a while. Probably 20 of the 30 teams were pursuing him. He’s a catcher/utility guy, can play everywhere, does a little bit of everything, and we’re extremely excited about him.”
On Emery, Haines said, “We would be a fool to ignore what he did at USF and how good a career he had there . ...
We’re excited to have the local kid who had a very nice, accomplished career at USF and is very deserving of signing with his hometown team.”
Aramis Garcia, who played 37 games for the Giants the past two years, is rehabbing from hip surgery.