San Francisco Giants Young Star Named Dark Horse To Be Best Player in Division

The San Francisco Giants could have a player ready to explode this season.

Sep 28, 2024; San Francisco, California, USA; San Francisco Giants catcher Patrick Bailey (14) reacts after scoring a run against the St. Louis Cardinals during the fourth inning at Oracle Park. / Robert Edwards-Imagn Images

The San Francisco Giants are entering a new era of baseball in the Bay Area this season with new leadership off the field and some new faces on it.

Coming off seven missed playoff appearances in the last eight years, it will take more than just offseason acquisitions from Buster Posey's first winter in charge like Willy Adames and Justin Verlander to get things on the right track.

It's going to take development from players who have already been on the roster and a ton of guys taking the next step in their careers in order for the Giants to reach their maximum potential.

One player who has already shown a ton of promise and flashes of being a potential future superstar is 25-year-old catcher Patrick Bailey.

After finishing top 10 in National League Rookie of the Year voting for a solid 97-game start in 2023, Bailey took things to another level in 2024 and won his first Gold Glove award.

In an article projecting who dark horse candidates to be the best player in each respective division, David Adler of MLB.com named Bailey for his NL West choice as someone who could be ready to elevate his game to the next level and explode in 2025.

"The 25-year-old was the most valuable fielder in baseball in 2024, according to Statcast, with a +22 Fielding Run Value," Adler wrote. "That means if he starts hitting, he'll just be one of the most valuable players in baseball, period. And Bailey has shown flashes at the plate. He hits the ball hard, he hits a lot of line drives, and he doesn't chase a ton of bad pitches."

On the season as a whole, Bailey actually put up very similar numbers in 2024 as his rookie year in 2023. But during the first half of the campaign, he looked like he had taken a massive leap.

Heading into the All-Star break, Bailey had a .784 OPS and .283 batting average along with already matching the seven home runs he hit as a rookie.

A major second half slump saw his numbers for the season crater back down to an OPS below .650 and batting average of just .234, only hitting one home run the rest of the year as well. After the All-Star break, Bailey had an OPS of .433 the rest of the season and a batting average of .170.

If Bailey can prove that his second half woes were nothing more than just a slump and he performs at the plate with consistency throughout the entire marathon that is a full 162-game schedule, he has a chance to establish himself as not just one of the best players in San Francisco, but one of the best in all of baseball.

The former No. 13 overall pick has shown enough to convince the organization that he is a centerpiece of the future of the franchise.

Now it's time for him to convince the rest of Major League Baseball.