SF Giants: The Bart vs. Bailey Debate After The 2021 Season

It was a quiet June 10th, 2020 when the SF Giants community received a bombshell from the Zaidi and co. as addressed by the commissioner: with the 13th pick of the 2020 MLB Draft, the San Francisco Giants select Patrick Bailey, a catcher from North Carolina State University. For months leading up to the draft, there was a lot of noise surrounding another catcher by the name of Tyler Soderstrom. However, most people view Soderstrom as someone who will move out of the squat eventually as the Giants have already drafted Joey Bart with the second overall pick in the 2018 MLB Draft as the heir to the now-retired Buster Posey. Bailey primarily played behind the plate in college and the natural byproduct of the selection is the debate about who is the real their to Posey between Bart and Bailey.

SF Giants: The Bart vs. Bailey Debate After The 2021 Season

Bart enjoyed a stellar 2019 campaign in the Minors and was considered to be the second-best catching prospect in all of baseball behind only Adley Rutschman and is generally considered a top 40 prospect at the time the Giants made the Bailey selection. After the 2020 season, however, the debate on who is the catcher of the future went even louder after Bart looked completely unprepared in a disappointing 2020 campaign with the big league club while Bailey was drawing out positive reviews in the alternate site in Sacramento in the pandemic-shortened season. After the 2021 season though, where does the grand debate stand? Is there a clear-cut favorite or is it still neck and neck?