The Giants have reinstated Joey Bart from the injured list and optioned him to Triple-A Sacramento, per Evan Webeck of the San Jose Mercury News and Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area.
Bart had been on a rehab assignment after going on the IL about three weeks ago due to a groin strain, but apparently the club doesn’t have room for him on the active roster right now.
Bart, 26, was the second overall pick of the 2018 draft and was once seen as the heir apparent to Buster Posey as the franchise catcher in San Francisco. However, Bart has had many chances to establish himself in the big leagues over the past few seasons without much success.
This option is the latest sign that the clock might be ticking on his time with the Giants. Once he spends 20 days in the minors, he will burn his final option year and will be out of options going into 2024.
The Giants opened 2023 with Bart joined by veteran Roberto Pérez and Rule 5 pick Blake Sabol as the catching corps, though Sabol is also capable of playing the outfield. Bart began the season on the IL due to a back strain, but would return 10 days into the campaign.
Perez only played five games before he required season-ending shoulder surgery, subtracting him from the mix. Bart and Sabol got the bulk of the playing time for a while, but Bart hit just .231/.286/.295 for a wRC+ of 64. He cut his strikeout rate to 25%, still above average but a big drop from last year’s 38.5% rate, but drew walks in just 2.4% of his plate appearances.
Bart then required an IL stint due to a groin strain on May 19, at which point prospect Patrick Bailey was called up and has seemingly leapfrogged Bart on the depth chart, at least for the time being. Bailey has positive grades from Defensive Runs Saved and FanGraphs’ framing metric so far, though in an obviously small sample size.
At the plate, he has struck out in 31.1% of his plate appearances and walked in just 3.3% of them but has nonetheless hit .298/.322/.526 for a wRC+ of 128. He surely won’t be able to maintain a .417 batting average on balls in play but the Giants will ride the hot hand and stick with him. Sabol, meanwhile, has less impressive defensive grades but is hitting a solid .248/.323/.428 on the year for a wRC+ of 107.
Bart’s rough season now gives him a career batting line of .223/.293/.342 for a wRC+ of 81. He also has a -5 DRS and a negative grade from FanGraphs’ framing metric. Though the club once thought highly enough of him to use the second overall pick in the 2018 draft on him, that was before Farhan Zaidi was hired as president of baseball operations in November of that year.
Despite having Bart in hand, the current regime used their first round pick in the 2020 draft on Bailey, who has surged to the big leagues already.
Bart will now head to Sacramento and try to get in a good groove. His situation with the Giants will be interesting to monitor in the coming months, especially with the trade deadline now just over seven weeks away. They are 32-31 coming into Saturday’s action and just a game and a half out of a playoff spot, putting them firmly in the mix to do some buying if they can stay afloat.
Despite his struggles, Bart could be an appealing trade chip for a club that still believes in his previous prospect pedigree, perhaps a rebuilding club that could give him some runway to work through his issues.
That’s mere speculation and it’s entirely possible Bart sticks around. Manager Gabe Kapler said Saturday that Bart “absolutely” still has a future in the franchise, per Danny Emerman of KNBR. But in the event that Bart is still a Giant by the spring of 2024, he will likely be out of options and competing for a roster spot with Bailey and Sabol.
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