Joey Bart must feel like hell about now.
Since being drafted second overall in the 2018 draft by the Giants, Joey Bart has been primed to be the heir apparent behind the plate of Buster Posey. His minors numbers were awesome, his bat was nailing the developmental opposition, and as Posey continued injury-prone campaigns, the countdown to Bart taking over seemed to tick closer and closer. In 2020, during a pandemic-shortened season that Posey refused to take part in for the sake of his own safety, Bart got called up. Because there were no minor leagues for him to ramp up in, Bart hit .233 in 33 games.
Then, in 2021, Posey comes back, the Giants go with Curt Casali as backup, and Bart gets 2 spectacular games in the majors while hitting .294 in the minors. Interestingly, the season Bart's not a factor in the Giants' plans, the Giants make the playoffs and win the NL West with a tremendous year. Then Posey retires. Bart is primed for a starting position, with Casali still looking to back up, and in 2022, in 97 games in the majors, Bart hits .215 with double the amount of strikeouts to his hits total. The one chance he had when all the eyes were on him was blown.
This season, the Giants began the year with Roberto Perez behind the plate, and while he did well, he was injured very soon into the season, meaning Bart would be the next logical choice. Barr has hit .231 with 21 strikeouts and 18 hits. And he is now currently down in the minors, while the Giants currently only have ONE CATCHER on the 26-man roster. ONE CATCHER...and it's NOT Joey Bart. That's gotta kill him.
Said catcher is a newcomer to the fold, a man named Patrick Bailey, who no one was expecting to really factor too much into the Giants' 2023 plans. Ultimately, though, the Giants have been fantastic since Bailey's call-up; they're 33-24 since the rookie catcher came up, though admittedly this 6 game losing streak they've been on hasn't helped that figure [they're in Oakland this week, it'll be alright]. Bailey, for the record, is hitting .265 with 29 RBIs and 45 hits. Bailey's an excellent defensive catcher who can hold his own at the plate, and is showing more versatility and presence than Bart has since coming up. It's gotta be heartbreaking for the former 1st rounder, he must feel like Pete Best.
The Giants, as evidenced by their losing streak, are imperfect, but still capable of sparks of greatness. The unsung guys [Cobb, Estrada, Wade, Flores] are leading this team more than the true heroes [Yaz, Peterson, Conforto] are, but I think that's part of their charm. This team does have a guy who's leading the league in saves, as Camilo Doval has taken to the ninth as smoothly as I'd hoped he would, as well as two excellent seasons from the Rogers brothers. They don't have as many offensive standouts as I'd like, but they're still a promising team from the middle of the pack, and they're right there in the thick of the wild card race as well.
Maybe they'll deal for somebody cool. Maybe Joey Bart will be the return.
Coming Tomorrow- One of the few lifelines my slowly-sinking team has left.
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