He has played in just 66 games, yet he has been worth more wins than all but three National League catchers.īailey's elite defense guided his ascension. Giants pitchers have a 3.87 ERA overall this year - and a 3.35 ERA when throwing to Bailey, the lowest for any catcher with 500 innings. By the time Bart was healthy again, Bailey had seized the job. ![]() Bart, meanwhile, went on the injured list when the Giants called up Bailey on May 19. Blake Sabol has split time behind the plate and in left field. That month, Austin Wynns was designated for assignment. Roberto Pérez underwent season-ending shoulder surgery in April. In that four-man battle for the catching spot, none of them cemented the role. "The second we got him, we just kind of flipped a switch." When Bailey turned a 4-2 deficit into a 5-4 lead with a 432-foot home run in the eighth inning on June 30 at Citi Field, and when he saved the Giants from a fifth straight loss Sunday with a walk-off home run, it was his cool, calm demeanor. 1 to secure a 4-3 win at Chase Field, it was his slow heartbeat. When Bailey boldly and successfully back-picked Arizona's Geraldo Perdomo with two outs in the ninth inning on Aug. The funny thing about a player's level-headedness? Performance determines its interpretation. I understand it's just kind of a different way to go about it." It was just slowing things down and really seeing stuff as much as I could. "A lot of people saw it as, like, lazy and doesn't play hard," Bailey said. While scuffling, his stoicism could be mistaken as lethargy or apathy. 460 OPS in a small sample against left-handed pitching at Eugene. "Pitchers saw that."īailey always felt his defensive abilities would translate at the highest level, but the switch-hitting catcher struggled to hit at the lower levels of the minors and didn't do much to assuage those concerns last year, slashing. "Every time he caught a pen, a live BP, went into a game, he was trying to show he was the best catcher in camp," said Giants bullpen/catching coach Craig Albernaz, who arrived in San Francisco the same year Bailey was drafted. That did not stop him from trying to throw his hat in the ring. Bart underwhelmed with his opportunity last season, but he got another chance this year as one of four competitors for an open catching job in spring training.īailey, whose highest level of play entering this year was at high-A, was not part of that group. Though the North Carolina State product thumped 29 home runs in his college career, Bailey's defense is what largely made him a first-round selection of the Giants in 2020 - two years after they selected catcher Joey Bart as their No. Obviously with the success, I think it turned into a little bit more confidence, especially at the plate." "I'd say probably just like a stoicism, tranquility, trying to slow things down. "I don't really know if confidence is the word," Bailey said. "A little bit, like, ‘Holy hell, this is a lot of information you're giving me.' I've just never seen him be overwhelmed."īailey's self-evaluation, however, yields a different descriptor. "A lot of catchers are a little bit wide-eyed," pitcher Ross Stripling added. So, when you know that you are that, it makes it a lot easier to just be comfortable and feel like you belong. He's confident in how good of abilities, physically, he has. "He has confidence that he's the best," Giants pitcher Alex Cobb said. The players around him describe a quiet confidence unusual for someone his age. Bailey went from winning the occasional game to beating Manaea four matches in a row. He began watching chess videos on YouTube. He can't just play casually he has to find every advantage. ![]() When he picked the game up, he attacked it with the same studiousness that has made him one of baseball's more promising young catchers. But it was playing chess against him when Manaea gained real insight into Bailey's ability to absorb new information.īailey knew how chess pieces moved, but he claims he never actually played the game before this year. ![]() ![]() Pitcher Sean Manaea got a feel for the Giants catcher's meticulous study habits on the rookie's first road trip, when Bailey used his time on the flight to sift through scouting reports and write his own personal notes for the upcoming opponent. He finds it essential to construct his plan of attack, whether kneeling behind a plate guiding a pitching staff or sitting in front of a chessboard planning a move. The manner in which the 24-year-old rookie catcher digests it and deciphers it belies his age and experience. Patrick Bailey wants all the data he can get.
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