Bart, Ramos could play part in second half of Giants’ season originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
SAN FRANCISCO — Heliot Ramos’ surprising promotion last April happened in part because the Giants saw a perfect opportunity to get him some big league at-bats against left-handed pitchers. Last weekend’s series against the Colorado Rockies — coupled with the lineup’s slump in July — seemed to provide the same kind of opportunity for Ramos, but this time the Giants were hamstrung by roster rules.
Ramos went on the 60-day IL after straining his oblique in early May and is not eligible to return to the big leagues until July 18. In the meantime, he’s on what is officially a rehab assignment with Triple-A Sacramento, and like one of his close friends, he has found his swing at a time when the big league roster looks in need of a boost.
Ramos was named the Pacific Coast League’s Player of the Week for the final stretch of the first half after going 14-for-29 over six games with four homers, a triple and four doubles. Fellow former first-rounder Joey Bart has picked it up, too, hitting three home runs during a 10-game hitting streak.
It’s easy to see how Ramos could be fit later this month and in the second half. The Giants are without Mitch Haniger until September, Thairo Estrada will miss at least four weeks, and Luis Matos has posted a .658 OPS through his first 22 big league games. Another right-handed bat all of a sudden looks like a need, and while president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi would prefer to add to the infield, the Giants could find a way to slide Ramos back into their outfield mix if these results continue.
Bart’s immediate future appears more uncertain. Patrick Bailey could be the starting catcher in San Francisco for the rest of the decade and Blake Sabol finished his first half in the big leagues with a .762 OPS and 10 homers.
Bart opened the door for the other two by struggling early in the year, and when injuries to the outfield made it seem like a three-catcher alignment — with Sabol mostly in left — could make sense for the roster, he was still searching . He didn’t hit his first homer of 2023 until the final week of June, but he has picked it up since, and Zaidi said Bart could still be a factor at the big league level in the second half.
“He went through a rough patch offensively here. When he first got down to Triple-A, he wasn’t super-productive, but he’s gotten really hot over the last week to 10 days. That’s really good to see. He just kind of needs to play and continue this momentum that he has,” Zaidi said. “He did a stellar, stellar job for us defensively this year. I think there’s a chance he’s one of our two catchers, one of three catchers. We like what Blake Sabol has done but he can do other things.
“I definitely see Joey as a Major League caliber player, as a catcher who can help a Major League club. There’s still potentially an opportunity to do that here. Even with the other guys we have, he could still fit on the roster, so it’s been nice seeing that he’s gotten going. We’re really keeping a close eye on what he’s doing.”
While Bailey has done a nice job against left-handed pitching this far, that’s still a relatively new development. The Giants could at some point roll with Bailey and Bart, with the former getting most of the starts and the latter mixing in against lefties.
It’ll be up to Bart to hit his way back, and recent swing adjustments seem to have helped. Bart is standing more upright in the batter’s box and manager Gabe Kapler said that it’s made a difference.
“(Hitting coach Justin Viele) did mention, which I agree with, that sometimes a player will get a little bit more into a squat position to try to make more contact, and sometimes that comes at the expense of hitting the ball really, really hard,” Kapler said. “Obviously Joey has been swinging the bat really well and hitting the ball really hard, and perhaps that’s one of the adjustments he’s made. Damon Minor, our Triple-A hitting coach, does such a great job and is largely responsible for any of those adjustments, but those are the ones that I’ve noticed.”
The Giants might need one of their former first-rounders down the stretch, but this time of year, there’s another reason teams love seeing their minor leaguers get hot. Last July, the Giants tried to get involved in the Juan Soto sweepstakes, but too many of their prospects were having disappointing seasons. Matos might have been a centerpiece of that deal, but he was hitting under .200 at the time and had dealt with an injury.
Zaidi hopes to add an impact bat to the infield and will make plenty of calls on high-end starting pitching. It’s possible that some of the players performing well in Triple-A end up being part of a bigger package, along with a young pitching prospect or two.
“When you have young players that are performing well, that’s really exciting to (other) teams,” Zaidi said. “You could have a really talented arm or position player and if they’re not putting up numbers, regardless of what they’ve done in the past, it’s just harder for (other teams) to get excited about it.
“It’s harder if you’re a seller to convince your fans that this guy has got a six ERA or this guy who is hitting .220 in A-ball is a really good acquisition. It kinda comes down to performance and we’ve got a lot of guys performing well in the system this year, so that’s a good thing.”
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