Giants call up top prospect Bart.
Top prospect gets call-up, makes his big league debut behind plate vs. Angels
The wait is over for Joey Bart, San Francisco Giants fans and the growing list of players who wanted to see the top prospect in the big leagues.
Bart, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2020 amateur draft, made his major league debut Thursday against the Los Angeles Angels, catching starter Kevin Gausman.
Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi said the team’s top decisionmakers weren’t certain Bart would reach the big leagues this season, but his work at the club’s Sacramento alternate site left them with no choice but to promote the catcher.
“We came into the year with a strong sense that his development wasn’t complete,” Zaidi said. “That was through no fault of his own. Obviously, the unfortunate (hand) injury last year limited his ability to work through the system and we talked through that with Joey and how we felt like going to Sacramento and continuing to work on things and refine things was the right step.
“Our part of the bargain was we were going to keep an open mind to his progress and calling him up this year if his progress was good, and if we thought the timing was right and that’s where we are today.”
Bart said he first felt he could handle big league pitching during spring training this year, but also understood what the Giants wanted to see from him in the development process so he worked diligently on his defense this summer. The Buford, Georgia native wanted to become
the first player to represent his hometown in the major leagues and he accomplished that mission Thursday.
“I’m just a very com- petitive guy, I believe in myself, I believe in our team,” Bart said. “Everyone wants to play in the major leagues. I knew I was going to have an opportunity. I didn’t know if it was going to be this year, or next year, I didn’t know when. I just knew that every single day I had to come and bring it.”
At 10-16, the Giants aren’t in the thick of a playoff race, but both Zaidi and manager Gabe Kapler want to give the team every opportunity to show what it’s capable of ahead of the August 31 trade deadline. Bart’s arrival is exciting for the organization because it’s a step toward an increasingly bright future, but the Giants also believe he’s ready to step in and upgrade their production from the catching position right away.
“It feels like just the right time and I think it’s got a chance to give a boost to the clubhouse,” Kapler said. “It certainly demonstrates that we’re trying to win and that we can win and develop simultaneously. I think every rep that Joey gets this year is important to his long-term development and ability to have success over the course of his career, but I think at the same time Joey gives us a really good chance to win tonight’s game.”
After Buster Posey elected to sit out the 2020 season, the Giants knew they’d be entering the season with inexperienced catchers who presented concerns on both offense and defense. Zaidi and Kapler have Tyler Heineman and Chadwick Tromp have impressed as pitch framers, but the duo has struggled offensively and combined for four catcher’s interference calls.
Heineman was optioned Thursday to create room for Bart on the 28-man roster as Kapler said the Giants wanted to stick with Tromp in a backup role due to how well he’s fared in handling the pitching staff.
“We think Tromp has done a tremendous job of helping our pitchers along,” Kapler said. “I don’t know how much Johnny Cueto would attribute some of his earlyseason success to his work with Tromp, but it’s not nothing.”
Giants catchers rank 26th in the majors with a .502 OPS and their .182 batting average has sunk over the last week as both Heineman and Tromp have been in slumps.
Kapler said now that Bart is in the big leagues, the Giants want to see him make the majority of starts over the team’s final 34 games.
“The goal is to get Joey in the lineup as much as possible to get as much experience behind the plate and in the batter’s box as much as possible,” Kapler said. “We may just kind of have to monitor his workload early on based on how much work he got in Sacramento.”
During his time at the Sacramento alternate camp, Bart also devoted days to learning how to play first base, but Zaidi doesn’t see the top catching prospect spending much time at that position until Posey returns to the club next season.
“We’re going to want him to catch as much as possible and playing him at first base might actually limit his catching reps,” Zaidi said. “That’ll be up to Gabe and the staff.”
In an interview on KNBR Thursday, former Giants catcher and current Arizona Diamondbacks catcher Stephen Vogt detailed his experience training with Bart last spring and discussed what kind of potential the team’s 2018 first round draft pick brings to the club.
“This is a guy, like I said, the IQ is really, really good,” Vogt said. “I was really impressed by how he was calling games in spring training at his age. Really, the sky is the limit, and I think he’s going to be a very good defensive and offensive catcher for a long, long time.”
Bart is considered one of the top two-way prospects in baseball at a position where a player’s defensive acumen is pivotal to his team’s overall success, but there’s no denying the most exciting aspect of his game is his ability to drive the ball at the plate.
The Georgia Tech product emerged as one of the Giants’ top right-handed hitters during spring training and during summer camp and should provide the club with a clear upgrade from an offensive standpoint at the catcher position.
It wouldn’t come as a surprise if Bart struggled to acclimate to major league pitching because of his relative inexperience at high levels of the minors, but the Giants are optimistic about his ability to make adjustments and run with the opportunity to start on a consistent basis.
“The defense is really good, but he’s the type of guy who gets your attention when he’s got a bat in his hands,” Zaidi said. “We saw it a lot back in February and March in spring training and we saw it in camp as well and it’s just exciting seeing him in the batter’s box. The catching tools, the catching performance, we’ve seen. This is really going to be the first time he’s seeing the highest-caliber of pitching in the most competitive environment in baseball.”
Bart’s family won’t get to watch his 2020 games from the stands, but they’ll be huddled up back in Buford watching him live out his big league dream.
“I’m really passionate about where I come from. I’m from Buford and I love it back there,” Bart said. “I think that’s the thing that’s got to me the most, I play for my teammates and myself, but also where I come from and that’s been really important to me.”