SF Giants still justified for Patrick Bailey trade despite Guardians playoff heroics

While a good chunk of the former SF Giants players in this year’s MLB playoffs were eliminated after the Atlanta Braves were beat in the NLDS by the Los Angeles Dodgers, there are still some stragglers out there including catcher Patrick Bailey.

He had a great night for the Cleveland Guardians on Thursday, going 2-for-3 with a solo home run and an RBI single as he helped his team beat the Chicago White Sox 9-5 to send the series back to Cleveland for a deciding Game 5.

Bailey is now hitting .417/.462/.667 this postseason in the four games he’s played. He hasn’t even been a regular starter as he’s split time with Austin Hedges behind the dish and came into Thursday night’s game off the bench. Something tells me he is going to be the starter going forward so long as his bat stays this hot.

Naturally, there were some Giants fans on social media who bemoaned the fact that Bailey was traded away earlier this year. It’s an understandable feeling especially since Bailey went on to hit respectably with Cleveland, slashing .228/.292/.390 with nine home runs and 32 runs batted in which was a marked improvement from what he did with San Francisco this season.

Still, it’s not like the offensive struggles he experienced with the Giants in 2026 came out of nowhere. In 2025 his batting average was below .200 for much of the year until a hot September pushed his slash line to .222/.277/.325.

2023 and 2024 both saw him get off to a hot start at the plate in the first half before falling off a cliff in the second half so his offensive production has always been an issue.

Some would argue that his defensive value made up for his inconsistent bat and while his skills as a pitch framer are undisputed, he was not always great at the other aspects of catching like blocking balls in the dirt, calling pitches, or being able to tag out runners on swipe tags at the plate.

It will take time to figure out who won the Patrick Bailey trade

We won’t know for quite some time whether the Giants won or lost the Bailey trade, but it’s still easy to see how they ultimately come out on top in the long run. If Daniel Susac can stay healthier next year and build upon the solid things he did both at the plate and defensively while Drew Cavanaugh and Jesus Rodriguez also contribute at catcher, there’s an argument to be made that that trio collectively could be just as valuable as Bailey. 

The real question is how Matt “Tugboat” Wilkinson and Carson Bolemon, the player the Giants drafted with the draft pick they acquired from Cleveland in the Bailey trade, fare in San Francisco. If either of them can be a solid starter for the Giants, or maybe in the case of Wilkinson a sort of Yusmeiro Petit long reliever/spot starter, then that would be huge for San Francisco since we know how they have struggled to develop quality starting pitchers in the minors.

So while it’s easy to see Bailey doing well in the playoffs right now and wish he was still on the Giants, it’s important to remember that San Francisco was not a Patrick Bailey away from the playoffs this year. Their pitching was putrid and they got promising young pitching in exchange for Bailey which is going to be a lot more important to their future success than a streaky-hitting catcher so they should still feel good about the deal no matter what he does in the playoffs.

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