Tony Vitello finally says what SF Giants fans want to hear about Daniel Susac

Daniel Susac may not have been in the starting lineup for the SF Giants on Thursday afternoon, but manager Tony Vitello said what fans want to hear about the rookie catcher.

Per Justice delos Santos of the Mercury News on social media, manager Tony Vitello seems to be coming around on the notion of more playing time for the young catcher. This is what he had to say ahead of Thursday’s game against the Cincinnati Reds:

“I think involving (Susac) as much as possible. See if we get into an every other day situation or whatever that might be.”

Tony Vitello says Daniel Susac will get more playing time

Many Giants fans have been clamoring, begging, and pleading with the Giants to give more playing time to the 24-year-old catcher. At a certain point it becomes less of a decision and more of an obvious move if Susac continues to hit as well as he has so far.

He’s got nine hits in his first 16 career at-bats and had a two-hit game on Wednesday night while driving in two of the team’s three runs in his first start against a right-handed pitcher. Previously he’d been limited to starts against lefties, but it seems clear that he is one of the few offensive sparks the team currently has at its disposal.

Still, some fans may be dissatisfied that Susac is not the everyday catcher. Surely some are confused why Susac wouldn’t be back out there on Thursday after such a strong game on Wednesday. Bailey being in the lineup on Thursday is pretty standard since Thursday’s day game follows the night game on Wednesday so usually whichever catcher starts the night game in that scenario gets the day game off.

Still, the fact that Susac has already made it a split time situation at catcher is pretty remarkable even if it’s not super shocking. Bailey has been one of the weakest links in San Francisco’s lineup for a while and there’s been chatter about getting an offensive upgrade, so there was an opening for someone to put pressure on him at the plate.

Maybe the Giants can get creative and find other ways to incorporate Susac into the lineup. Perhaps he could be designated hitter some games just to try to keep that red-hot bat in the order.

The reality is that Susac is not going to save this team. The Giants need the guys who are struggling the most in the lineup to turn things around otherwise this will end up being a very, very long season for the Giants.