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
1. Buster Posey

What would it take for the Posey to return in 2022? For one, he would have to have a very solid year at the plate. Coming off of opting out of the 2020 season, we do not know what to expect from Posey, but we do know he needs a solid year if he will be back in the orange and black in 2022.

Going back to his last season in 2019, it was undoubtedly a struggle for Buster. In what was his worst year at the plate, he hit .257/.320/.368 with 7 home runs and 38 RBI. He also dealt with injuries throughout the year.

In 2020, before the pandemic led to the delay of the MLB season, Posey looked poised for a rebound season. He appeared to be truly healthy for the first time in a while and was driving the ball well in spring training. Now, coming into 2021, he seems a little less healthy, given that he spent a little bit of time on the shelf due to a hip problem. He said that he felt fine once he returned to the lineup, so we can only hope that the issue doesn’t flare up too much throughout the season.

If Posey can stay relatively healthy this year and can put together a solid season at the plate, meaning that he looks a bit more like his former self and puts up more Buster-like numbers (he doesn’t need another 2012 season), then perhaps the Giants feel that bringing him back in 2022 would be a wise measure. That’s especially true if Bart stalls in the upper minors or deals with another major injury. And, of course, there’s always the possibility that Bart is packaged in a trade.

The odds may look rather long at this point, but we cannot rule out the fact that the Giants will bring Posey back if he has a good year and especially if Bart stalls or is moved.

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.