One of the most promising stretches of Joey Bart’s career is being interrupted.
Bart, the former second overall pick, felt his right groin tighten up as he approached second base on a key seventh-inning double. Bart immediately left the game after catching seven scoreless innings from Alex Cobb.
Through 12 games, Bart leads all catchers in strike rate — a catcher framing metric. The double that knocked him out of Monday’s game brought his batting average up to .303. A simplified approach has stabilized his once-alarming strikeout rate.
But now, after his season debut got delayed by a back injury, groin tightness could interrupt his development — a “frustrating” circumstance, he said.
Bart will know more about the nature of his injury tomorrow, when team doctors take another look at him. Until then, he’ll have to wonder about pressing pause on a strong personal stretch amid a three-game winning streak.
“Yeah, I mean it’s not about me, man,” Bart, 26, said postgame. “It’s about this team. To be honest with you, I don’t think there’s anyone in this clubhouse who wants to be out there more than me. I really do. I love this group we have here, love the relationships we’ve built. This isn’t about me. I would’ve done anything to be out there to catch that last out for Cobb. It means more to me, that stuff, than what I’m doing. As a team, that’s what it comes down to. That’s what hurts me the most, is hopefully, being optimistic that I won’t be down too long. That’s just what sucks. I want to be out there every day for those guys. That’s my mindset. Unfortunately, there’s things you can’t control.”
Bart said his groin has lingered for the past couple days, but not when he was squatting. Only sometimes while running would something feel off, he said. He and the medical staff has been wrapping his leg pregame and worked to prepare it for competition.
The injury maintenance has come as Bart has reached base in nine of 10 games with a plate appearance while providing excellent defense behind the plate. Last Saturday against the Mets, he threw out two attempted base stealers.
“Right now, I’m just hoping for the best, really,” Bart said. “It’s been really frustrating, having things come out of nowhere. I think that’s what makes it suck. I don’t know, you know what I mean? I don’t know where it’s coming or why. But all I can do is move forward and try to treat it. I really want to be out there. So just do whatever’s smartest moving forward.”
Over the past few games, Bart has absorbed a number of foul-tips to his body — including at least one to the nether regions. Bart prides himself on toughness, a common trait for catchers.
When asked about balancing being there for your teammates versus playing through pain and potentially putting your own health at risk, Bart said “it’s really tough.”
“I would say I’ve learned a lot over the past couple years, how to deal with injuries,” Bart said. “I’m always a guy who wants to go. I want to go, man. I don’t want to sit. It’s just not in me, you know?”
Bart added that he’s had a number of veterans caution against pushing too hard.
Among those veterans in the Giants’ clubhouse is Cobb, who spun his first shutout since 2012 on Monday.
When Bart left the game in the seventh, he made sure to connect with Cobb before entering the training room. He encouraged the starter to keep going.
“Don’t stop,” Bart told Cobb. “This is your game, it’s your ball…Don’t leave anything else out there. Give it everything you have.”
After Cobb struck out the 27th out, Bart congratulated him in the clubhouse with a hug. The youngster reminded the veteran to really, truly enjoy the moment. He has always had a leadership quality, after all.
“Really tough to not be able to go finish that with him,” Cobb said. “(Blake Sabol) did a great job jumping in…but Joey’s been working so hard. I don’t think there’s been a more improved player than Joey. He’s just done everything that he’s been asked. Criticized a lot last year, maybe minor critiques — he’s taken them in stride. He’s not complained about anything and he’s answered everything that everybody’s ever asked him to do.”
