Could A's Add San Francisco Giants Catcher Before Season Opener?
The Oakland A's optioned former top prospect Tyler Soderstrom to Triple-A Las Vegas yesterday, which leaves them with the backup catcher role undecided. They have two NRI catchers--Carlos Pérez and Kyle McCann--that are still in camp, with Pérez the likely option to begin the year after he served as the backup to Shea Langeliers last season.
Yet, if the A's need to add a catcher to the roster anyway, they may take a gander at what's available outside of the organization to see if they can find someone with more upside.
The San Francisco Giants have just such a player.
Joey Bart, the former second overall pick in the 2018 Draft, is out of options this spring and is likely to either be traded or placed on waivers in the coming days. He also went to Georgia Tech, the same school that McCann attended.
Bart debuted with the Giants back in 2020 after being heralded as the heir to Buster Posey. In 111 plate appearances, he hit .233 with a .288 OBP and in his parts of four seasons with the club he has batted .219 with a .288 OBP and a 78 wRC+ (100 is league average). It hasn't been a great offensive showing. For what it's worth, this spring he's batting .417 in 30 plate appearances.
Defensively, his pop time is one of the slowest in baseball at 2.02 seconds, which ranked in the 10th percentile last year. Pérez was slightly better at 1.98, which was good enough to rank in the 36th percentile.
Where Bart could really stand out would be with his framing behind the dish. In his 230 innings behind the plate last season, Bart racked up a +2 in catcher framing, while Langeliers held a -8 and Pérez at -3. The A's have been focusing on their pitchers throwing strikes since last season's disastrous opening month, and having someone that can steal a strike or two would be helpful.
It also wouldn't hurt that Bart is familiar with the some of the new additions to the Oakland roster like Alex Wood, Ross Stripling, Trevor Gott, and Scott Alexander. Also working in his favor here is that the A's have already added five former Giants to their roster this winter, so why not make it six?
The bottom line is this: Is Joey Bart a surefire, can't-miss catcher? No, not at all. But the A's would be banking on a change of scenery and providing him an opportunity leading to better results than he's shown thus far in his career. If it doesn't work out after a couple of months, then they can DFA him. But he could also look like a new player and turn into a decent trade piece if he turns things around just a bit, too.
Adding Bart would be a very low-risk move that is worth taking a chance on. The A's just DFA'd right-hander Ángel Felipe a couple of days ago after he underwent Tommy John surgery. He's a strikeout machine with big command issues. Swapping those two guys seems like a logical fit for both clubs, with each getting a player to take a flier on.