Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports; Rick Scuteri-USA TODAY Sports
Whenever baseball comes back, the Giants will have a dilemma on their hands. A legendary catcher with two years remaining on his contract and a 23-year-old top prospect who plays the same position.
Farhan Zaidi envisions there being room for both Buster Posey and Joey Bart on the same big-league team.
From the start of spring training, the Giants made it clear Bart would begin the season in the minors, where he needed a bit more refining — and that plan did not change as the 2018 No. 2-overall pick tore up the Cactus League in nine games (.438/.526/.875).
Bart was sent down to minor league camp March 10, the question immediately becoming when the Giants would decide the time is right for a promotion — which is certainly complicated by Posey’s presence.
“The fact that Buster’s played some first base and Joey’s a guy we want to move around a little bit — when you think about building the ultimate 13-man position roster, I think it’s a disadvantage to have a starting catcher and somebody who’s just a backup,” Farhan Zaidi said on KNBR’s “Tolbert, Krueger & Brooks” on Thursday. “If you have two guys who are good offensive and defensive catchers who can play different positions, it almost gives you an extra half roster spot with which you can try to match up and make sure your guys are fully rested.”
After the Giants demoted Bart, Zaidi said “we may see him some at first base” this season. They had not said the same about Posey, whose greatest strength at this point is his excellent defense behind the plate.
Zaidi admitted he hasn’t spent much time recently thinking about the catcher dilemma, as the Giants and Major League Baseball have much bigger things to deal with in the era of the coronavirus. Still, it’s a nice problem to have.
“I think aspirationally, everybody wants to have two catchers that they want in there as much as possible,” the Giants president of baseball operations said. “I think the fact that both of those guys are going to be able to move around a little bit is going to give us flexibility to get them both in the lineup as much as we need to.”
