© Kelley L Cox | 2020 Jul 10
Giants fans want to see Joey Bart. And that was before the four catcher’s interference calls.
When Buster Posey opted out of the 2020 season, it was assumed that Bart, who turned heads throughout camp, would make the opening day roster. When it was revealed that he wouldn’t, most assumed it was a service time decision, and that we would see him by the seventh game of the regular season.
Alas, a quarter into this 60-game sprint, Bart remains at the Giants alternate site in Sacramento.
Longtime Giants reporter John Shea asked Farhan Zaidi why on the latest episode of his “Giants Splash” podcast. Zaidi responded with a worst-case scenario hypothetical of what could happen if Bart gets called up too early.
“What we have to lose is putting Joey Bart on a career path that doesn’t allow him to get the most out of his ability,” Zaidi said. “What we have to lose is calling him up, maybe a little too early, having him struggle, having that impact his confidence and that’s the last thing we want to do.
“Frankly, we’d rather be a little late on calling him up than a little early on calling him up.”
Zaidi wants to make sure that when Bart is called up, he looks like the player that absolutely crushed the ball in spring training. Bart slashed .389/.476/.778 with a pair of home runs in 11 games this spring. He’s currently ranked as the second best catching prospect in all of baseball.
From Zaidi’s perspective, with great talent, comes great responsibility.
“I still view him as getting important reps, because he’s facing good pitching in Sacramento,” Zaidi said. “We’ve got guys like Dereck Rodriguez and Andrew Suarez, those guys are with the taxi squad right now, but he had the opportunity to face those guys, as well as other guys who are Triple-A, big league pitchers.
“I think those are valuable reps.”