Rays Trade Candidate: Joey Bart

The San Francisco Giants are a team that has long boasted incredible depth at the catching position — Buster Posey, ever heard of him? — and accordingly seem ready to move on from the once lauded second overall pick of the 2018 draft Joey Bart.

The Tampa Bay Rays, who currently do not have a backup catcher on the 40-man roster, would make an obvious fit, should the price be right.

At this stage, what the Rays are looking for in a backup are less straight forward than what you’d see in a spreadsheet. They need a good teammate, a good game caller,

Bart is 27-years old heading into his fourth major league season — just 37 days younger than the Rays projected primary catcher Rene Pinto — but with only 503 PA at the major league level, making him somewhat of a prospect still on paper, despite four seasons in the bigs.

In 2022, the one season he was given the lion’s share of appearances (97 games), Bart batted 11 HR with a 38.5 % strikeout rate and 8.9% walk rate, culminating in a 92 wRC+. He’s a right handed hitter, but not a particularly great hitter generally — not that it matters much at backstop. In 2023, the Giants gave him only 30 appearances, with worse overall results due to only 3 walks and no homerun in less than 100 PA.

So how do we evaluate how Bart would fit what the Rays are looking for? He’s a big guy, with in-game power given enough chances, perfectly acceptable at blocking pitches and throwing guys out, so in evaluating Bart it really comes down to framing pitches, calling games, and good vibes.

When it comes to defensive stats for catchers, the leading site for measuring defense is Baseball Prospectus, and the results are very much “what have you done for me lately” over limited opportunities. With that in mind, here’s some framing runs via small sample size theater.

In 2023, at least, Bart shined as a framer, and in favor of that trend continuing, also reported to camp more limber as well, at least according to Susan Slusser at the SF Chronicle:

Bart, already built like a linebacker, dropped some weight this winter — in part because he stopped training like the football player he was growing up in Georgia. Working with a physical therapist, he tailored his workouts more to catching and to increase his mobility and flexibility, but he also managed to add muscle mass while losing a few pounds.

“It was very different from how I’d been approaching things,” he said. “I used to find the hardest workout I could and beat myself down and then get to the batting cage and have no energy. Now I’m working hard but doing things that are going to help me.”

He said he feels the difference in his crouch behind the plate, and he appears to be moving well. He’s a good enough catcher to be on teams’ radar as a backup, and if his conditioning makes him more effective at the position and he can hit a little, he could start for another team.

Bart potentially being in the ‘best shape of his life’ — as the old baseball trope goes every Spring — can’t hurt his case as a trade candidate, and MLB Trade Rumors estimates five teams should be interested in Bart’s services, including the Rays, Brewers, Diamondbacks, Marlins, and Pirates.

He’s out of options, which means the Rays would not have the luxury of optioning Bart, but they’ll be needing to add a catcher to the 40-man roster any way you slice it this off-season.

Overall, Bart would be an inexpensive addition for the Rays in a trade.

Is there no one else?

Here you might be wondering why the Rays don’t go with one of the catchers in camp, like prospects Logan Driscoll or Dom Keegan, or a veteran on a non-roster invite like Rob Brantly or Nick Meyer. Those are all plausible solutions at this point.

Really, though, whether Bart’s worth acquiring comes down to the team’s opinion of 2023’s trade deadline acquisition Alex Jackson — once 2014’s sixth overall draft pick — who injured his shoulder while in Triple-A just fourteen games after he was acquired and before he could join the Rays as intended last season.

Jackson, a 28-year old with 66 games played in the majors from 2019-2022, is the top internal candidate to backup Pinto this year, despite being cut and later re-signed in the off-season. He’s a longtime, bat-first backstop with receiving skills that FanGraphs described as “viable” at the trade deadline. All he cost at the deadline was 35 FV Triple-A starter Evan McKendry.

If the Rays don’t like either option, it’s worth noting Francisco Mejia was also just cut from Angels camp, presumably to allow him to pursue another opportunity as the Angels focus on developing their prospects.

What do you think the Rays should do at catcher?