Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The surprise was not in the news but in the timing.
Joey Bart was sent down to minor league camp, one of four cut, on Tuesday, with 11 more days before the Giants leave Scottsdale. He survived until the last cut-down day last season, and this year showed off a bat that sure looked major league-ready: 7-for-16 with three walks, two home runs and a double in the Cactus League.
He put on a show, but his continuing to see time in the batters’ box would begin taking time from Rob Brantly and Tyler Heineman, competing for the backup-catcher job that has been deemed off-limits for Bart. The Giants want to see more high-level minor league at-bats from Bart, whose hand injuries cost him time last season. Of course, what goes unsaid is they don’t want to start his major league clock too soon.
“I think it’s just time for him to go get ready for the season over on the minor league side, get more regular at-bats,” Farhan Zaidi said in a 20-minute sitdown with reporters Tuesday at Scottsdale Stadium. “Obviously, this is the time of the spring when guys start getting closer to playing full games. And we’ve got a couple of guys in competition for the backup spot. We need to make sure we see more of them. Just became a little bit of a numbers game.”
Bart, the No. 2 pick in the 2018 draft, saw 87 plate appearances with Double-A Richmond last season and only played catcher at that level. It sounds as if that will change this season at some point. Zaidi cautioned that 1) Bart is a catcher and 2) those internal talks have not yet begun, but, “We may see him some at first base on occasion during the season.”
Doing so would allow him and Buster Posey to temporarily coexist. Posey is having a resurgent camp, but how his body and hip and bat fare during the season will be interesting to watch.
The Giants talked with Bart in delivering the news — “a really good meeting actually,” Zaidi said — to explain why now. There had been some thought to make him a victim of the first wave of cuts, but Bart’s play kept him around longer. The need to see more of Brantly and Heineman became necessary.
When will the big-league Giants see the 23-year-old again? Rising to the major leagues this season is “a reasonable goal for him and for us,” Zaidi said before the Giants played the Cubs.
It’s unclear whether Bart will begin in Richmond or Triple-A Sacramento, Zaidi saying that hasn’t been broached yet. He stuck in major league camp as long as his bat and glove allowed him.
“The competition, seeing higher-level arms, that’s valuable experience,” Bart told KNBR on Sunday. “Just working with really good pitchers — I feel like that makes you better, makes you have to step your game up a little bit.”
