Patrick Bailey’s Value Skyrockets If His Bat Comes Around

After being a finalist for the Gold Glove in his rookie season -which one could argue he should’ve won – Bailey truly solidified himself as an elite defender in 2024. He took home his first career Gold Glove and it really wasn’t a competition.

He posted an absurd overall defensive value of 36.9 according to FanGraphs while accumulating 20 Defensive Runs Saved. A lot of this comes from his ability to frame the ball. With an ace like Logan Webb, who’s not overpowering and likes to attack the corners, Bailey gets a lot of opportunities to steal strikes.

This led to him posting 23.7 Framing Runs, over 10 points better than the runner up in baseball, Cal Raleigh. He did this while catching just over 900 innings, which was 9th among catchers in 2024.

We can’t forget to mention that he also held the quickest pop time in baseball at 1.85 seconds in 2024.

Now, how could Bailey possibly follow up one of the best defensive seasons we’ve seen? The best way is by doing it again, which is exactly what he’s doing as we get into the last week of the 2025 regular season.

With five games left to play, he’s posted a Fielding Run Value of 30 with an overall defensive value of 34.4. Undoubtedly, he’s well on his way to his second career Gold Glove, with what seems to be many more on the way.

Now when we look at just how good Bailey has been since his MLB debut, he truly is on his own level when it comes to defending. First of all, he’s third among catchers in terms of fWAR since his debut. Even while being a frankly terrible hitter, Bailey’s already one of the most valuable players at the position.

Now, since the beginning of 2023, he is miles ahead of every other catcher in several advanced defensive metrics.

It’s clear that the glove is special and reason enough to run Bailey out there every night. However, with a recent hot streak, could the bat be improving?

Is the Bat Catching Up With the Glove?

As mentioned earlier, Bailey has been a well below average hitter throughout the entirety of of his career. As a switch-hitter, he has been slightly better from the left side, but has struggled either way.

For his career, in over 1200 plate appearances, Bailey is slashing .230/.288/.341 with a 76 wRC+. He’s also never reached double-digit home runs in a season while striking out just under 27% of the time.

However, since the calendar hit September it looks like Bailey has figured something out. He has arguably been the Giants best hitter across a rough stretch for the team while continuing his elite defensive play.

While the Giants have been eliminated from playoff contention, Bailey has been one of the bright spots this month. Not to mention he had a pretty cool moment while the club was still in the thick of the Wild Card race.

While it will undoubtedly be a year to forget offensively once it’s all said and done, finishing strong could be important for Bailey and San Francisco in 2026. While the numbers he’s posted in September are likely unsustainable, if he can inch closer to league average with the bat, he could cement himself as one of the most valuable players in all of baseball.

For the team, Bailey being the slightest threat and not a complete liability offensively lengthens a top heavy lineup headlined by Willy Adames, Rafael Devers, and Matt Chapman. The 26-year-old improving with the bat could almost be seen as a free agent acquisition in a sense as it adds another threat to the bottom of San Francisco’s everyday lineup.

Will Patrick Bailey finally take a step offensively and become one of the most valuable players in the sport, or will he continue to strictly be one of the greatest defenders this game has seen?