Things haven’t gone quite according to plan for Joey Bart. So far, the man who has been asked to step into some Buster Posey-sized shoes is finding that they’re not fitting quite right.
Bart came up as an offense-oriented catcher and while he’s had some scorchers off the bat, he’s currently hitting .185 with 4 home runs and 7 RBI. Still, he’s gotten on base a fair bit (.338 OBP) and has a farily above-average .722 OPS for a catcher.
There’s been flashes of that massive offensive potential, it hasn’t clicked just yet.
Susan Slusser of The San Francisco Chronicle joined Papa & Lund on Monday and discussed the Bart situation, given the context of the trade the Giants made to ship off Mauricio Dubón and acquire catcher/first baseman Michael Papierski from the Astros.
“It’s interesting because he’s been better defensively than I think we expected, so I think he gets a little bit more time because of that, right?” Slusser said. “They’re not losing as much on the defensive side and working with pitchers as they might while they’re waiting for him to kind of turn things around offensively.”
Slusser mentioned that the Giants were trying to get Bart to add a toe tap to his swing routine, but he’s since ditched it. While it could make a return at some point, it looks like it’s gone for the moment.
If Bart doesn’t improve, Slusser could see the Giants being proactive and looking to make a major upgrade around the trade deadline.
“I do think as the summer goes along, if they are in contention — and I think we all fully expect them to be — that’s the spot where maybe they do look to see if somebody has a significant piece that they could acquire at the trade deadline,” Slusser said. “Certainly that’s got to be something that they’re considering at the least.”
Listen to the full interview below. You can listen to every KNBR interview on our podcast page at knbr.com/podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.
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