Giants Catchers Almost 2 Months Since the Patrick Bailey Trade

Forgive me if I'm a little rusty, the last time I published anything longform about the Giants, Joc Pederson was still on the Dodgers.

When Buster Posey traded Patrick Bailey to the Guardians in May, there was a particular aspect of catching skill & responsibilities that went mostly undiscussed.... until last week. 

On June 23, Evan Webeck reported that Giants pitchers have now resorted to calling their own pitches due to the difficulty Daniel Susac and Eric Haase have experienced in "getting up to speed" with the pitching staff. 

Now, listen, I'm of the belief that the overall quality of the Bailey trade was pretty debatable at the time (not objectively bad, not objectively great, very much up for discussion) but what I am going to say to you next is point-of-fact, completely devoid of subjectivity. Ready? 

In a season which was firmly not being given up on by Buster Posey, the man in the organization who knows better than anyone else the measurable and immeasurable defensive value that a catcher brings to his team & his pitchers and the difficulty required to get to that level of skill and comfort, traded away the best defensive player in baseball, replacing him with 2 completely unproven rookies and a last-ditch-resort 3rd option, which resulted in the Giants pitchers immediately getting worse and becoming unable to trust the game calling provided by the catching trio, all for the potential-and-far-from-guaranteed offensive upgrade provided by them, which has seen the Giants catchers rank 26th in wRC+ (47) since the trade, below that of even their former teammate Patrick Bailey (60). 

That wasn't a run on sentence, was it? Well, even if it was, what it absolutely was NOT was any stretch of the truth whatsoever. A man who we have seen lead and support and take charge of pitching staffs over his entire career traded the MLB-recognized best defensive catcher in the game and effectively hoped that his replacements would simply.... not miss a beat? If this trade were happening on August 3rd with the Giants 20 games below .500, totally different story! The season is well and truly done, the time is nigh to see what the Giants have in some of their younger players and Patrick Bailey has had more than 45 days to see if his bat warms up (which by the way is a lot less time than the Giants have been forcibly required to give to their $420 million infielders, who after "warming up" are still cumulatively just barely league average hitters). Worst case, if Bailey didn't turn his offense around, which it seems he has to a degree at the time of writing, then the Giants are right where they were on May 9th anyways.

Brass tacks: the trade of Patrick Bailey did not suit a team that was allegedly still trying to compete and pulling the trigger when/how Posey did certainly didn't suit someone whom we all know was very good at the physical *and* mental aspects of playing catcher. Arguments of "well _____ catcher will have better offensive upside than Bailey eventually" or talks of bat potential are dead on arrival because this trade was not made for the benefit of 2027 or 2028, it was made as part of a "win now" attempt and that's how it should be judged. 

Admittedly that last couple minutes worth was a bit subjective and this next bit is too, but I sincerely believe it: The Giants would never have traded Patrick Bailey if the heavy hitters the Giants had signed to be heavy hitters had been anything close to pulling their weight. On a team where everyone is even moderately close to performing as they are expected to, nobody needs to care and nobody does care about what Patrick Bailey is doing with the bat - you've got him there to ensure the defense from that position stays airtight and his pitchers are well taken care of.

Bailey was excelling at the most important part of his job, and all of the Giants highest paid position players were simply not. Chapman, Devers and Adames had wRC+ of 77, 68, and 55 respectively at the date of the trade. They had a combined fWAR of -1.1, a combined defense of "oh god I can't look" which would have been "please deprive me of my eyes" had it not been for Matt Chapman, and the highest OPS between them was .613. They are the reason for the team's slow offensive start, and they are ultimately the reason for the Giants deciding they had no room whatsoever for a hitter who was struggling as badly as Bailey was. What should have been "we don't really need him to hit" was instead "we need to scrape every run out of this lineup that we can", and it came at the price of Bailey's defense.

Back to that little nugget I snuck into the run-on sentence above, Giants catchers have indeed been among the worst in baseball from an offensive perspective since the Giants traded Bailey to the Guardians. And yes, Bailey's offense is sloooowly improving to aaaaalmost the point that could be considered acceptable for a guy who's going to do so much on the other side of the ball. The hard data for your viewing displeasure: 

Not pictured is Jesus Rodriguez, who actually managed to stay very close to league average offense but was not good defensively and played rarely with Haase and Susac on the roster, so back to 'AAA' he went. Also not pictured is Drew Cavanaugh, who is now the 3rd rookie catcher that Buster Posey has called on, this one to replace the now-injured Susac. He, not too dissimilarly from Susac, has been tearing things up in the minors in his age-24 season and hopes to continue it with the big club. In his very short stint so far he's put up below average results on both sides of the ball. 

I am obviously hopeful that Susac and/or Rodriguez and/or Cavanaugh adjust to the responsibility and expectations that come with playing arguably the most important position on the field at the MLB level. Many fans are clinging to the hope that someone will find their footing and become more "regular" offensive contributors than Bailey ever was, and honestly I don't blame them for that. If anything, I would gently judge them for their undervaluing of the defensive aspects of the game that often go unseen or unmeasured. We all remember the legendary pitching that brought the Giants 3 World Series titles. What some seem to gloss over is that all those pitchers were throwing to the same catcher, also lauded for his defense, and they all had great things to say about how much he helped them along - exactly as was the case for his successor even to this day as the Giants pitchers are taking matters into their own hands and citing "trust with Bailey" which is no longer there. 

I've no idea how many more times I'll write about baseball, but when I do, I'm going to try and end things a little differently than on my X feed: with a bit of positivity. 

His bat may be sliding quite a lot and he hasn't quite sync'd up with Giants pitchers (stay with me), but Daniel Susac's measurable defensive contributions have been outstanding. His Fangraphs defensive rating is almost identical to Patrick Bailey's. His defensive runs saved number is almost identical to Patrick Bailey's. His framing is on part with Bailey's. His pop time and throwing aren't quite as good, but they're comparable. Daniel Susac is absolutely holding his own against those that thought the Giants were objectively taking a large step backward on the defensive side of things. We are in sample size territory still and a lot could change, which are the two biggest reasons why I'm trying not to get my hopes too high nor am I giving these contributions the same weight and airtime as someone who's done it for 11x as many MLB games, but for the most part, Susac is more than holding his own. 

Drew Cavanaugh meanwhile, as implied, has played his first few games! He also has his first couple hits. Hardly anything to report just yet, but at the moment it is an extension of the "fingers crossed" game the Giants have been playing for nearly a couple months. 

(Well, it was almost all positive.)