San Francisco Giants Catcher Outshined Their Returning Former Top Prospect

After welcoming in their former top catching prospect for a series, the San Francisco Giants' current catcher made MLB history and outshined the player they traded away.

Apr 26, 2024; San Francisco, California, USA; San Francisco Giants catcher Patrick Bailey / Darren Yamashita-USA TODAY Sports

The San Francisco Giants were looking for the heir apparent for their superstar catcher Buster Posey when he was coming up on the end of his career.

The former National League MVP and seven-time All-Star didn't play in 2020 when he opted-out of the season because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

They turned to their former No. 2 overall pick from the 2018 draft, Joey Bart, in late August of that year after the season started on July 23.

He slashed .233/.288/.320 with zero homers, seven extra-base hits, and seven RBI across his 33 games.

But, once Posey returned in 2021, the Giants only played Bart in two games.

Still, it was thought that they would turn the reins over to their former first round pick to become the catcher of their future when Posey retired after 2021, but it never quite worked out, and they ultimately dealt him to the Pittsburgh Pirates prior to this year.

Part of the reason for that was they had drafted Patrick Bailey with their 13th overall pick in 2020.

Now, it's Bailey who seems to be the catcher of their future, and when Bart returned to face his old team for a weekend series, it was San Francisco's new catcher who outshined the former top prospect when he made MLB history following his three-run walk-off home run in the ninth inning.

There was a thought that the Giants might come to regret their decision to ship out Bart when he started out the year red-hot with a slash line of .304/.429/.739, three home runs and eight RBI over his eight games played.

That would blow away any output that he had with his former team.

But San Francisco seems to have a good catcher of their own as Bailey is looking much more formidable at the plate this year with a slash line of .297/.365/.516, three homers, eight extra-base hits, and eight RBI.

Over the weekend, Giants fans got a good look at the comparison when Bart finished the series against his former team going 0-4 with two strikeouts in three games while Bailey went 3-11 with three RBI, one strikeout, a walk-off homer, and Major League history to his name.