SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The hardest thing Patrick Bailey does everyday is gulp down 1,000 calories.
That might seem counterintuitive for a player at the most physically demanding position in the sport.
But the grueling nature of being a major-league catcher was exactly Bailey’s problem during his rookie season. Upon being called up in May, the 23-year-old immediately became one of the game’s top-rated defensive backstops. By Game 162, though, his body was beginning to break down.
“It’s literally just like, hey, we need you to eat something,” Bailey said. “We’ll try to do a better job of it this year.”
While he is listed at 210 pounds, Bailey dropped a substantial amount of weight over the course of last season. In an interview toward the end of the year, he estimated he was operating at about 60-70% strength. This can all be typical wear and tear for a baseball player, particularly a catcher, but it raised enough alarm bells that the team decided feeding information to the meticulous game-planner wasn’t enough — they had to feed him food, too.
Rising from Double-A to the big leagues, Bailey put more stress on his body last season than ever before. He caught 115 games between all levels, 43 more than any previous season, or the equivalent of nearly two months worth of extra contests, more than 330 additional innings of squatting, popping, throwing and thinking.
“It’s just with all the adrenaline and stuff throughout the day, just struggling to eat,” Bailey said. “What I struggle with is just getting food in me.”
So, they developed a plan.
At some point every day, team nutritionist Erika Gonzalez-Rebull will whip up a shake and put it in Bailey’s locker. It’s a calorie bomb that boosts his daily intake by 1,000.
Bailey maintained the emphasis on shoveling calories into his system over the offseason, and it’s noticeable.
Dave Groeschner, the head of the training staff, said Bailey reported to camp at about the same weight he began last season.
“I feel great,” Bailey said. “Probably the strongest and the most mobile I’ve been so far.”
Now, the work begin to keep it that way. And it’s a team effort.
“It’s about making it as easy as possible to get good calories in front of him, and ultimately that’s my job,” Groeschner said.
How much did the season take its toll on Bailey last year?
His first two months in the majors, Bailey was a sensation on both sides of the ball. He provided clutch hits and batted .322 with a .904 OPS. By the end of June, he had thrown out 11 of the 28 runners who tried to steal on him, a rate twice the league average, plus a pair of successful side-armed backpicks.
From July onward, however, Bailey batted .185 with a .503 OPS. After homering five times in his first 123 trips to the plate, he left the yard only twice more over the next 230 times he stepped in the batter’s box. And his grip on base paths loosened, throwing out only 14 of the final 60 runners to test him.
“I read some of the comments last year too about getting a little run down at the end,” said manager Bob Melvin, who brings a new perspective as a former catcher. “Now, that second year, you have to focus even more. That second year can be humbling at times for young players. But he knows that he’s going to work even harder, and the pitching staff has a ton of faith in him already. For a rookie, he had a terrific year last year, and I was on the other side of it a lot.”
While the organization is putting its faith in Bailey to be their everyday catcher for many years to come, he’s not without competition in camp.
The team signed oft-injured veteran Tom Murphy to serve as Bailey’s primary backup, but given Murphy’s health history it’s probably no coincidence forlorn former second overall pick Joey Bart is still around. He drew rave reviews from Melvin early on for the attitude he brought to camp.
There’s also last year’s Rule 5 draft pick, Blake Sabol, though he’ll be more focused on learning first base this spring and now has a full set of minor-league options. In a similar mold to Sabol — though, physically, they couldn’t be much more different — Cooper Hummel is another offseason acquisition who can catch and play the outfield.
“I like the catching group, and we have some depth, too,” Melvin said. “We have eight catchers here. Typically in camp you’re trying to get six so you can field two fields of teams when you’re doing fundamentals. We have eight here.”
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Who’s not in camp is Craig Albernaz, the Giants’ catching coach who took a position on Stephen Vogt’s staff in Cleveland and a close confidant of Bailey’s. Assistant coach Taira Uematsu and Alec Burg, the bullpen catcher, have assumed those duties, with an assist from the head honcho who was once a backstop himself.
In their limited interactions, Bailey said, “I’ve heard nothing but good things and I’ve had nothing but good experiences with (Melvin) so far.
“I’m looking forward to just talking to him and learning more about the game and all that fun stuff.”
As far as this season goes? Bailey said he doesn’t have any goals in mind in terms of playing time. But another 40 games on his shoulders would bring him to 155, or one more than last year’s leading catcher, Orioles ironman Adley Rutschman, played.
“I’m trying to build up to catch as many as I can,” Bailey said. “I don’t know what that number looks like, but when they want me in the lineup, I want to be in there.”