SF Giants must employ risky gambit to keep Daniel Susac's red-hot bat in lineup

After one game doubters could dismiss it as a fluke, but after two scorching performances it becomes a little bit harder. SF Giants backup catcher Daniel Susac had yet another great game on Tuesday night as he now has six hits in his first seven career MLB at-bats. The Giants have to find a way to keep his bat in the lineup and they may just have to employ a risky gambit to do so.

There are going to be debates about whether Susac should be starting over the team’s primary catcher Patrick Bailey. It’s only natural as the team’s last two wins both came with Susac in the starting lineup. Maybe the Giants can have both guys in the lineup, though.

SF Giants have to keep Susac's hot bat in the lineup

Perhaps Susac could be used as the team’s designated hitter and Bailey could still be the catcher so they are keeping Susac’s hot bat in the lineup while at the same time keeping their two-time Gold Glove winner behind the dish.

Of course, there is some risk in this approach. Using your backup catcher as your DH can backfire. If Bailey were to get hurt during a game and could not continue, then the Giants would have to move Susac to catcher which would force them to give up the DH spot in the order and then it would be like the old days and the pitcher would fill the DH gap.

The Giants could still use a pinch hitter so their pitchers wouldn't have to actually swing the bat or even take a pitch as long as they had guys on the bench, but there is still a definite risk in using Susac as DH.

It might just be worth the risk, though. Since joining the Giants all the 24-year-old has done is hit the snot out of the ball. He tore it up in Arizona during spring training, slashing .350/.386/.550 with two homers and five runs batted in to decisively win the backup catcher job. Even though he’s only gotten limited playing time in the team’s first 12 games, he’s taken full advantage of it and recorded his first career triple last night.

This hasn’t come out of nowhere, either. The Rule 5 draft pick put up very solid minor league numbers when he was with the A’s. Last season in Triple-A he slashed .275/.349/.483 with 18 home runs and 68 driven in.

It seems like this kid is for real and until he proves he isn’t he needs to be worked into the lineup somehow at least semi-regularly. If the Giants aren’t high on the idea of having him as the DH, maybe they could start him at catcher every third day or use him to pinch hit late in games for Bailey. It may seem disrespectful to Bailey given how clutch he’s been in recent years and how strong he is defensively, but his bat is cold right now and the Giants need to start winning more games.

For whatever it’s worth, the Giants used a Susac, Daniel’s older brother Andrew, as a designated hitter back in the 2014 World Series and that turned out alright for the team. It was just for one at-bat, but maybe that’s the universe trying to tell the Giants something.