Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports
It was not just a media- or fan-driven campaign that tried to lay tracks to get the (Joey) Bart to San Francisco.
The top catching prospect was hyped by big leaguers, too, from Austin Slater to Evan Longoria to Wilmer Flores to Dereck Rodriguez, his friends and spring training lockermates softly campaigning for Bart’s time to be now.
It is now Bart’s time, and with one of his first public acts as a major leaguer Thursday, he praised the prospects he left behind, whom he hopes will join him soon.
“Some guys that we have down there are really, really freaky,” Bart said over Zoom before his MLB debut in the Giants’ 10-5 victory over the Angels, in which he clubbed his first double.
“Down there” means Sacramento, where Bart watched top prospects like 20-year-old buddy Heliot Ramos, a longer-shot possibility for this season, and 18-year-old Marco Luciano, who’s trying to become the next teenage phenom in baseball.
“Another kid, Alex Canario, very very impressive,” Bart said of the 20-year-old outfielder. “Those guys make this game look very easy, and the more at-bats they’ve been getting out there, they’ve been getting better and they’ve been working really hard. Those three players are definitely some of the most talented guys that I’ve ever been around, aside from the guys in spring training.
“… Those three names are definitely what the Giants should be excited about.”
With Bart, the Giants showed an abundance of care — or caution — in not promoting the best catcher in the organization until 26 games had past this year, the two big-league catchers both hitting under .200. The Farhan Zaidi regime has shown a willingness to bump up prospects to the pros when they succeed, but perhaps there will be less willingness when service time and possible poor debuts are at play with higher-echelon prospects.
On Thursday, Zaidi did not want to directly comment whether Ramos could follow Bart’s path and be playing games at Oracle Park this year, saying they continue to evaluate all of their options at the alternate site.
“We certainly want to reward players that we think are ready,” Zaidi said.
Bart began making the cases that three of his pals are.
