'Top of the charts': Why Giants rookie catcher Patrick Bailey is drawing Pudge comparisons

As Buster Posey wrapped up a motivational talk with San Francisco Giants minor-leaguers this spring, he asked the gathering of prospects if anybody had any questions.

Patrick Bailey, not one to miss a chance to pick the brain of a future Hall of Famer, did not hesitate.

Posey is royalty in the Bay Area, a three-time World Series champion and now owner of a small slice of the franchise. His legacy began when, at 23, he was called up to the major leagues for good in May 2010 and was spraying championship champagne five months later.

Bailey, no fool, wanted to ask how a young catcher could quickly earn the respect of veteran pitchers – just as Posey did in bringing San Francisco its first championship.  

Flash forward five months, and Bailey has already fulfilled a significant portion of young Buster’s legacy.

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Bailey’s major league debut came on May 10, nearly 13 years to the day Posey took over behind the plate in China Basin, and while Bailey has so much left to accomplish, so much heavy lifting has already been done.

At 24, Bailey has the implicit trust of a veteran pitching staff. A lock on the catching position in San Francisco, likely for as long as he wants.

And while it’s all rather unscientific, he possesses what one might call the Bailey Effect – in short, joining a team that was 20-23 upon his arrival, only to go 34-24 since and muscle into a tie for a wild card spot.

Of course, it’s not all Bailey. But the Giants are smart enough to realize a certain cause and effect.

“Everything is top of the charts,” Alex Cobb, the Giants’ 35-year-old All-Star right-hander, says of Bailey. “Scouting reports, pitchers, the running game – there’s nothing you can’t identify that he isn’t at the top of the league at handling. He’s going to be a future leader of a clubhouse. He gets along with everybody and does a really good job of managing everything.

“There’s been a few guys I’ve seen come up as rookies and fit in immediately. And those guys have all ended up being superstars.”

The praise has come quickly for a player whose batting statistics – a .264 average, five home runs in 174 at-bats, a league-average adjusted OPS – don’t leap off the page.

Yet that praise is always well-considered, and the comps Bailey continues to accrue already put him in a very high-rent catching district.

‘He cares a lot’

It is late July, and Bailey – drafted 13^th overall in 2020, a year with no minor league season – is just days away from playing his 83^rd overall game, which would match his professional high. Like so much of his brief career, the sample is too small to say Bailey’s already hitting a rookie wall, but the past three weeks – a .190 average and .520 OPS compared to .330 and .921 his first 27 games – suggests at least a recalibration is necessary.

“It’s kind of how baseball is,” says Bailey, whose deliberate delivery belies the speed with which he processes information. “It will beat you up, but you kind of have to respond to it well.”

Bailey learned that in his first pro season, when, a year removed from North Carolina State, he started at high-A but batted .185 in 33 games, earning a brief reset at the Giants’ Arizona complex before finishing at low-A San Jose. The bat did not come around in 2022, either, but the glove was another story: Bailey nailed 30% of attempted basestealers, earning a Gold Glove for best catcher in all the minor leagues.

Still, there was little to suggest when he raised his hand and asked Posey the secrets to his early success that Bailey would be knocking on the door to San Francisco. But the numbers don’t tell you what Bailey was processing behind the scenes.

“He’s highly intelligent. That commands a lot,” says Giants catching instructor Craig Albernaz. “And the second thing is, he cares. He cares a lot. Even when he first came up, our first conversations were that he wants to earn the trust of the starting rotation.

“He knows the language we speak. He knows from the catching and pitching and analyst side what we look for, how to speak the language, so everything is seamless. He’s put a ton of work in, so he knows exactly what we’re looking for when he jumps right into meetings.”

And then there’s the physical component of catching, where Bailey’s exploits quickly and unflinchingly inspire comparisons to Hall of Famers and All-Stars.

First, the numbers: Bailey’s pop time – or the span between catching the ball and the middle infielder catching it – is 1.87 seconds, ranked only behind J.T. Realmuto’s 1.82. He’s tied for sixth in caught stealing above average.

And he ranks third – behind Texas All-Star Jonah Heim and Pittsburgh’s Austin Hedges, whose pitch-framing ability keeps him employed despite a poor bat – in catcher framing runs. That’s accompanied by a 53.1% strike rate, ranked second in the major leagues.

If those modern metrics make your eyes glaze over, perhaps the comps will resonate.

Albernaz says Bailey’s athleticism includes “some J.T. Realmuto movements” behind the plate. When Bailey hit a go-ahead three-run homer in the eighth inning and nailed the New York Mets’ Starling Marte on a steal attempt in the ninth, manager Buck Showalter said Bailey reminded him of Hall of Famer Pudge Rodriguez, whom he managed in Texas; broadcaster Ron Darling evoked Thurman Munson.

Says Cobb: “Physically, he just does things behind the plate that nobody really does.”

And although it took a while, they’re even feeling comfortable enough around San Francisco to throw around the B word – Buster – without feeling sacrilegious about the catcher who startlingly retired after the 2021 season.

“There’s some Buster attributes, as far as the presence, the calmness, the preparation,” says Albernaz. “Buster was kind of the same way – both highly intelligent, highly prepared, ask really good questions. As a coach, it makes you be on your game a little more because you know your player is up to snuff.”

'Don't sell yourself short'

It’s all very heady for a dude just a few years removed from the Tar Heel State’s Piedmont Triad, where Bailey attended a small-school baseball powerhouse before heading to N.C. State.

“The baseball in North Carolina,” says Bailey, “is sneaky good.”

Bailey may soon be its most significant ambassador, part of a generation that started with Corey Seager, who debuted at 20 as the Dodgers’ shortstop, to Nationals left-hander MacKenzie Gore, who debuted at 23, along with Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh down to Walker Jenkins, the fifth overall pick out of a Carolina high school by the Twins.

Yet Bailey has proven to have the talent; now, it is his survival skills being put to the test.

He and Albernaz have been working hard at what the coach calls “the unseen hours,” or time away from the park and best practices for nutrition and sleep. Bailey now counts himself among those arriving early to the ballpark for treatment, a preemptive act he hopes will keep him in the lineup.

“It’s more the grind than the second wind,” says Bailey, who manager Gabe Kapler prefers doesn’t catch more than four games in a row “I’m trying to catch as much as I can, but at the same time try to take care of my body.”

The Giants need him. They’re tied with Arizona for the final two wild card spots, with Philadelphia a half-game behind. Not unlike the “Torture” era in which Posey debuted, the Giants operate on a thin margin, ranking 20^th in the majors in OPS and playing 24 one-run games (they’re 13-11).

It is going to be a taut and perhaps gut-wrenching final two months. The lessons will continue for Bailey, but thankfully, he’s quick on the uptake.

“He has a really good memory. He’s got an even, quiet heartbeat,” says Kapler. “Doesn’t get too high or too low. And for that reason the moment never seems too big for him.”

Certainly, it would be a dream come true if Bailey replicates Posey’s rookie season and wins a ring before even making an opening-day roster.

But clearing his own path brings its own promise, too.

“I tell Patty all the time, don’t sell yourself short,” says Albernaz. “You can exceed anyone you want, as long as you put the work in.

“And he fully believes that.”