SF Giants: Who will be the starting catcher in 2022?

Nick San Miguel has recently examined who the first baseman and shortstop could be for the SF Giants in 2022. Now, he turns his attention behind the plate.

It is difficult to say it, but it’s now become almost impossible to envision Buster Posey playing his entire career with the SF Giants. With a $22 million club option in his contract for the 2022 season, the Giants are almost guaranteed to let their franchise cornerstone hit the free-agent market. The reality is, 2021 could easily be Posey’s last season in San Francisco.

It would be nearly unthinkable to see Posey wear any other team’s jersey. However, as fans prepare for that reality, they know he will be forever tied to the franchise and the city of San Francisco regardless of how the rest of his career goes. Still, it will hurt to see someone so beloved by Giants fans play somewhere else.

Who could step in to fill the shoes of one of the greatest players in franchise history? We know that the Giants have two young catching prospects in the form of Joey Bart and Patrick Bailey. The former, of course, has long been advertised as the heir to Posey behind the dish.

After last year’s abysmal big-league performance from Bart, some fans may want to pump the brakes on making Bart the starting catcher. However, president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi and GM Scott Harris, may feel it is time to move on from Posey. If that’s the case, where else could they go?

With all that context hanging over the coming year, let’s dive into the various different paths the organization could go with the position and the potential justifications behind each move.

Potential SF Giants Starting Catcher in 2022
2. Joey Bart

The anticipation surrounding Bart’s call-up in 2020 was immense. Everyone wondered how this top prospect would fare in his first taste of big-league action. He got off to a hot start with several hard-hit doubles in his first few games, but he cooled off and struggled to put the ball in play. Furthermore, he had some troubles behind the plate defensively and calling games for pitchers.

Looking back, it was probably unfair to expect too much from Bart in 2020. It was an insane situation to be thrust into with the weirdness of last season and the fact that there were no minor league games in which he could steadily progress. While Bart will start 2021 in the minors, the hope is that he can steadily progress to the Giants’ liking and perhaps be called up sometime in 2021 if there is an injury or a spot opens up somehow. Given his strong performance in spring training, it’s beginning to look like that could very well be the case.

As long as Bart does not regress in the minors this year, then I think he may be the betting favorite to be the starting catcher for the Giants next season. He would be 25 heading into next season, a full ten years younger than Posey, and the Giants likely want to find out sooner rather than later if he will truly be their catcher of the future.

Potential SF Giants Starting Catcher in 2022
3. A stopgap veteran

There is a scenario in which the Giants decide not to bring back Buster Posey, and they feel that Bart is not ready to take over the reins as a catcher, at least to start 2022. If this turns out to be the case, then perhaps they could have a stopgap catcher that they sign to a one-year deal in order to bridge the transition from Posey to Bart. Even if Bart is the guy, they might prioritize a proven veteran to enable them to limit Bart behind the plate to keep him from wearing down.

They brought in veteran catcher Curt Casali for the 2021 season to serve as Posey’s backup, and if he has a solid 2021, maybe they feel it would be worth it to bring him back and have him be the starter at the beginning of 2021. This would make sense to have a veteran out there to start the year, someone many of the pitchers, may be familiar with from 2021.

The hope would likely be that Casali would be solid enough both at and behind the plate to hold down the fort, but that Bart would wind up forcing him out of a job like Posey with Bengie Molina back in 2010.

At this point, this seems like a fairly reasonable compromise measure that would allow Bart more time to grown and develop if the team no longer has Buster Posey behind the dish.

In short, the SF Giants could see several longtime fan favorites leave San Francisco after 2021. It is a very real possibility that by the start of 2022, there will be no players on the roster remaining from the championship years. It was an inevitability, but if it does come true next year, it will still hurt to see such great Giants, especially Buster Posey, leave San Francisco. If he does, Joey Bart is the most likely option to replace him, with another veteran addition potentially in the mix.