The San Francisco Giants shook up their front office after the 2024 season. The club replaced Farhan Zaidi with Buster Posey as the next president of baseball operations.
However, after two seasons, the Giants have not seen much of an improvement. After another season around .500 in 2025, the club has limped to a 16-24 start in 2026. Posey’s hand-picked manager, Tony Vitello, hasn’t made much of an impact in terms of wins and losses yet.
It’s too early to judge Vitello’s track record as manager, but it fits the pattern of Posey trying to aggressively shake things up in the organization.
The latest move by the Giants was to trade Patrick Bailey to the Cleveland Guardians. San Francisco received left-hander Matt Wilkerson and the Guardians’ Competitive Balance A (No. 29) pick in the deal.
Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic dug deeper into the deal and why the Giants were willing to move on from their Gold Glove catcher. It appears that the primary motivator is a philosophical difference between the former and current Giants catcher, and how they value the position defensively.
Philosophical Differences at Catcher Led to Patrick Bailey Trade
Rosenthal reports that Posey grew more frustrated with Bailey, citing people familiar with the two’s relationship.
On the season, the light-hitting catcher was slashing .146/.213/.183. Jay Jaffe of FanGraphs noted that the former first-rounder had the second-lowest wRC+ (13) of any player with 90 or more plate appearances. However, Bailey’s offense, or lack thereof, doesn’t factor into why he’s in the lineup.
Instead, the rift may be more attributed to how the two view the defensive responsibilities of the catcher position. Rosenthal notes Posey prioritizes a catcher’s ability to handle a pitching staff as the most important responsibility at the position. That’s what was valued the most when the 2012 MVP winner and three-time champion played for San Francisco between 2009-2021.
On the other hand, Bailey is more proficient at framing, controlling the run game, and understanding more advanced metrics. Those aspects have resulted in Bailey holding an iron grip on the National Gold Glove Award at his position for the past two seasons. It’s another case of old school and new school philosophies clashing.
Rosenthal also speculates that the tipping point may have come in the Giants’ back-to-back losses to the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park. San Francisco was walked off in both ends of a doubleheader on April 30.
With the Giants holding a 2-1 lead, Bailey called for nine straight sinkers from closer Ryan Walker against Bryson Stott. That backfired, as Stott tied the game with a triple and then scored the winning run on a Justin Crawford infield single. In his next game, he called for 10 straight splitters from Keaton Winn, who surrendered the game-tying run before the Phillies celebrated their second walk-off of the day.
Who Do the Giants Turn to at Catcher?
Losing the best defensive catcher will have a noticeable impact. While their lineup will be collectively better with one of the worst hitters in MLB removed from it, the defensive impact might be more noticeable.
Entering play on May 11, the Giants are collectively slashing .242/.287/.362 and a wRC+ of 84. Only the New York Mets‘ mark of 81 is worse. Additionally, the Giants have the worst walk rate in the league at 5.5% and are tied with the Milwaukee Brewers for the fewest home runs (26).
With Bailey now in Cleveland, that means the Giants will move forward with a Daniel Susac, Jesus Rodriguez, and Eric Haase tandem behind the plate. Both Susac and Rodriguez are rookies, and Haase is a journeyman backup with a career OPS of .675 and a wRC+ of 85.
Due to the significant defensive downgrade from Bailey, those catchers will have to make up that value with better game calling. That will show up more in the Giants’ pitching statistics. The Giants are near the middle of the pack, ranking 16th in both ERA (4.08) and FIP (3.97).
How both the Giants and Bailey fare over the next four seasons will likely decide if this trade was justified or not.
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