SF Giants: Three reasons to trade catcher Joey Bart

Reason #2: Buster Posey

Buster Posey has two more years left on the 8 year, $159 million contract he signed with the SF Giants. This includes a $22 million team option with a $3 million buyout for 2022. We know that before Posey opted out of the 2020 season, he had been steadily declining. Injuries had limited his ability to hit for power and was hurting his abilities at the plate overall.

He showed flashes of his old self in 2020 Spring Training before the world was flipped upside down, but it remains to be seen whether that old self will return in 2021. However, if Buster is as healthy as he appeared to be entering Spring Training last year and can stay fairly healthy throughout the season, then I think we can expect much better performance than his 2019 numbers.

So, what if Buster does turn things around this season and perhaps next season? Then, SF Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi and general manager Scott Harris will have a tough decision to make. They could sign Posey to another contract, almost ensuring that he would retire as a San Francisco Giant, a fitting end for a living legend who was instrumental in bringing three championships to San Francisco.

Or, they could decide that it is not worth signing Posey to another deal and that it is time to move on at the catcher position. There are many variables in this equation, the main one being how Buster performs in 2021.

It is a choice similar to the one the San Francisco 49ers had to make when they traded Joe Montana late in his career to make way for Steve Young. If Bart was traded, it would be more like when the New England Patriots traded Jimmy Garoppolo instead of Tom Brady even though there were some who felt Garoppolo was the future of the position for the team.

Trading Bart would at least clear up any potential controversy that could come up between Bart and Posey.