Patrick Bailey Is Slowly Losing His Everyday Role
With the development of two young backstops, the back-to-back Gold Glover is starting to see less consistent playing time.
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Two years ago, Patrick Bailey looked like the long-term solution behind the plate for the San Francisco Giants. Of course, he was defending at an elite level, but he was actually hitting at an above-average clip.
However, the 2026 campaign has brought on some new developments for San Francisco’s current, and future, catching situation. After the first half of the 2024 season, Bailey has been one of, if not the, worst hitters in baseball.
Despite the lack of offense, there was no risk of Bailey losing his everyday gig because of San Francisco’s lack of depth at the position throughout the organization. The backups at the big-league level weren’t any better, and there wasn’t a single catcher in the upper-minors that could potentially fight for the role.
However, that has completely changed in 2026. Two newer faces to the organization — Daniel Susac and Jesus Rodriguez — have started a true battle for who should be getting the majority of days behind the plate.
As a matter of fact, within the last week, it looks like Tony Vitello has flipped the ideology for the Giants everyday catcher and placed an emphasis on offensive production at the position.
Stats were taken prior to play on May 8.
Bailey’s Struggles Continue
There’s never been any questions about Bailey’s defense. He’s a back-to-back Gold Glove winner in the National League and comfortably led baseball in both fielding run value and catcher framing during those seasons.
Because of how elite he is on that side of the ball, Bailey has the third highest fWAR of any catcher in the league at 9.2 since his debut in the early part of 2023. Unfortunately, none of that value has come from the bat.
While he has been one of the most clutch hitters in baseball, outside of a few big swings, he has been less than underwhelming offensively. Of the players with at least 500 plate appearances since the start of the 2025 season, Bailey’s wRC+ of 61 is the second lowest in baseball. Only Ke’Bryan Hayes is lower with a mark of 57.
To add insult to injury, Bailey’s OPS (.568), AVG (.210), and OBP (.266) all rank in the bottom five in baseball during that span. Unfortunately, because of how bad the Giants lineup has been as a whole to open the 2026 campaign, his struggles stick out even more.
When names like Rafael Devers, Willy Adames, Matt Chapman, and Jung Hoo Lee are going right, you’re okay with hiding Bailey at the bottom of the lineup. However, when the entire group ranks last in the majority of offensive categories across baseball, you need as much offensive upside as possible throughout the entirety of the lineup.
New Kids on the Block
Due to his rough at-bats, Bailey was benched three games in a row this past week — something we have not necessarily seen since his debut. Part of this was because of the immediate impressions that two young backstops made on Tony Vitello and the Giants organization.
Daniel Susac was picked up by San Francisco in this winter’s Rule 5 Draft and, because of that, was the favorite to be the Opening Day backup to Bailey. After a strong spring, he was exactly that.
While it was an extremely small sample, Susac’s first two games had fans already calling for him to be the everyday starter. In his first eight plate appearances, the 24-year-old had six hits including a two-run triple.
Naturally, there’s been some regression, but in his small sample throughout 2026, he’s been amazing. Through his first 24 plate appearances, Susac is slashing .478/.500/.652 with a 228 wRC+.
Prior to hitting the shelf, he had started two of the three games in a series in Cincinnati and it simply looked like a change in overall playing time was in the near future behind the plate.
Now, due to the IL stint for Susac, Bailey had returned to playing close to every day. That was until this weekend.
Veteran catcher Eric Haase started against a southpaw on Sunday, which made sense. It was what took place on Monday and Tuesday that turned some heads.
After an abysmal road trip in which San Francisco went winless, Buster Posey decided to make some significant roster changes. He did this by calling up Bryce Eldridge, the club’s top prospect, and Jesus Rodriguez, an intriguing bat acquired at last year’s trade deadline.
Rodriguez went on to start all three games of the series with the first two coming behind the plate. His defense as a catcher suggests he’s more of a plug-in back there, but if the bat looks like it has through his first three games, there’s no way San Francisco can afford to take him out of the lineup.
In a series against the division-rival Padres, Rodriguez logged four hits in nine plate appearances, including his first-career home run.
Typically, fans would assume he’ll regress through the next week or so, but the 24-year-old’s track record suggests that he’ll continue to do this. Across seven seasons in the minor leagues, he’s held a .311 batting average.
More notably, on Tuesday night, Rodriguez started behind the plate in a Logan Webb start. Even with his underwhelming beginning to 2026, if Webb wanted to, he could easily ask for Bailey behind the plate.
At the end of the day, Bailey’s pitch calling and ability to steal strikes has helped make Webb one of the best starting pitchers in the game leading up to 2026.
Is a Long-Term Change Coming?
For the first time in his career, Bailey has some real competition behind the plate. Of course, he is arguably the best defender in the sport, but this year feels different.
With an offense that has been the worst in baseball, San Francisco needs as much potential with the bat as possible. Bailey simply doesn’t provide that.
Susac and Rodriguez, on the other hand, have fairly strong histories in the minor leagues of real offensive upside. With both having strong starts to the year, we could see Tony Vitello make a change in the everyday lineup.
Bailey looked like the future at the catching position in San Francisco, and still very well may be. The real question is whether he’ll be able to hit well enough, and soon enough, to rejuvenate the organization’s confidence in him.
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Written by
Michael Monreal got his start in baseball media when he started his own website covering the San Francisco Giants after playing two years of college baseball.…