The Giants’ decision to trade Patrick Bailey continues to be a head-scratcher

CLEVELAND — Patrick Bailey has always had a knack for solving the granular problems. How do you exploit a hitter’s tendencies? What’s the best way for a pitcher to set up his breaking ball?

The question put to him outside the Cleveland Guardians clubhouse Tuesday afternoon, as his former team arrived at Progressive Field to begin a three-game series, was a bit broader than that.

How will you think of your time as a Giant?

“Goodness, I mean, it’s where it all started,” said Bailey, who was traded to the Guardians in May. “I’m incredibly grateful to the Giants organization and the fans and the players and all the staff members that I’ve had there. Played my first big-league game there, and looking back at it now, like, so grateful for San Francisco and the Giants.”

For a catcher who never hoisted any trophies like Buster Posey did, Bailey — who never had the opportunity to catch a postseason game — packed a lot of dramatic moments into three-plus seasons in San Francisco. He’s the only player in major-league history to end games with a grand slam and an inside-the-park home run in the same season. Bailey said those highest of highs, plus catching Blake Snell’s no-hitter in 2024, are “definitely going to be some of the best memories of my career, and hopefully I have many more as we go forward. But no doubt, Giants baseball is a big part of my life.”

Bailey also established himself as the game’s preeminent strike-framing catcher, and the run value that all those borderline strikes created propelled him to National League Gold Glove awards in each of the past two seasons.

If all this Bailey boilerplate has you wondering why the Giants shipped him out, well, that’s another question that requires a broad answer. When you’re trying to take the tactful and high road, you keep the specifics to yourself.

“At the end there, I kind of saw the writing on the wall a little bit,” Bailey said. “It was definitely a surprise. Definitely not the story I had written for this season. But I’m so grateful for the Cleveland organization and just trust in God’s hand in all this.”

The writing that Bailey could only decipher one way? “Catching four of five to one of five. I think you get an idea.”

When Bailey looked at the lineup for a May 5 home game and saw that rookie Jesús Rodríguez was catching right-handed ace Logan Webb, he knew he was no longer viewed as the primary catcher.

Bailey said he didn’t request a trade, but he wouldn’t acknowledge whether he made his unhappiness in a reduced role known to management while the run-starved Giants sought to squeeze more offense out of the position with Rule 5 draftee Daniel Susac. Bailey said that, yes, he has remained in touch with several Giants players and staff members — Webb strolled past while Bailey was speaking to two reporters, and they shared a back-slapping hug — and has kept tabs on the team as it’s continued to slide down the NL West standings. But he declined to venture any thoughts or opinions.

When you’re about to face your former team for the first time, sometimes the less said, the better. Or you fall back on that old standard: “It’s a business.”

Patrick Bailey was behind the plate for the Guardians’ win over his former team on Tuesday night in Cleveland. (Nick Cammett / Getty Images)

Several times in Posey’s two years as the Giants’ president of baseball operations, moves have been made that prioritized run production over run prevention. Even in that theme, the Bailey trade stands out as a head-scratcher.

The Giants received a midlevel pitching prospect, Matt Wilkinson, who coincidentally joined the team on the taxi squad in Cleveland and is set to make his major-league debut with a start on Wednesday. The Giants also received Cleveland’s competitive balance pick, No. 29, which they used to take high school left-hander Carson Bolemon. It will be years before the full results of the trade are known.

At the time, though, Posey justified the deal by saying the Giants were confident in the catching on the rise in the system.

“It’s more the confidence that we have in Jesús Rodríguez and Daniel Susac and the strides that we feel like they’ve made defensively, and both of them swinging the bat well,” Posey said. “And not necessarily only Patty, who’s been off to a slow start offensively this year, but just as a whole, trying to find ways to get more runs on the board.”

It hasn’t worked out, and bad luck has at least something to do with that. Susac has been on the injured list three times this season (elbow neuritis, a strained lower back and then a season-ending fractured kneecap via a foul tip). Rodríguez is working his way back from elbow inflammation as well. The Giants are down to Drew Cavanaugh, an inspirational story who was so buried in the system two years ago that he barely played for Low-A San Jose, and Andrew Knizner, who is back with the team for a second stint because he was available on waivers.

Unfortunate injuries aside, it’s a heck of a statement when you trade away a two-time Gold Glove-winning catcher and turn the position over to a Rule 5 pick not valued enough to merit a 40-man roster place with the Athletics, and a player who fills more of a utility role and happens to have shin guards that fit.

It’s an even louder statement when the Giants official making the trade is Posey, who should have a better idea than anyone about evaluating what goes into being a championship-level force behind the plate.

Sure, it’s a business. That’s what players always say when they try to manage the emotions of getting traded. But when you are a catcher, and it’s Posey who is trading you out of town, how do you not take that personally?

If the impetus behind the Bailey trade was about getting more offense out of the position, then it comes across as more rash than bold, more impulsive than decisive. That’s a fine distinction that Posey acknowledged has been a struggle for him as he weighs kick-starting a sinking team against longer-term aspirations.

Really, the Bailey trade only makes sense if it’s about more than his offensive issues amid a team-wide struggle to score runs. It makes more sense when you learn that members of Posey’s advisory group either weren’t fully sold on the value Bailey’s pitch-framing metrics provided or looked at the adoption of the Automated Ball Strike Challenge System and assumed every other team that lagged in framing was about to catch up.

Posey provided some not-so-subtle subtext in his comments about Bailey over the years, saying he challenged the young switch hitter to be a leader of the staff and not rest on the value that an evolving industry was placing on his framing skills.

In the spring, before the Giants began to quietly shop Bailey, one member of the front office pitched a story to a well-read writer in the analytics community that would illuminate and attempt to quantify how much value Bailey creates with a pitching staff. Was that an effort to pump the value of a player the Giants were already set on trading?

Ultimately, it’s water flowing under the Hope Memorial Bridge. Guardians pitchers and manager Stephen Vogt rave about Bailey’s preparation, attention to detail and game-planning skills. Bailey is in a better place, nearer to his North Carolina roots, and not playing for a team that could be careening toward a 100-loss season.

The Giants will keep faith that Susac’s injuries, after a healthy matriculation in the minor leagues, are a one-year fluke, that Rodríguez can grow his defensive skills to a playable level as a backup, and that the vacuum at the position this year was the opportunity Cavanaugh needed to show he can be a big-league contributor.

For now, especially with no obvious free-agent fits in the upcoming class, the Giants expect to stay internal at the catching position. And if it doesn’t shake out, then hard questions must be asked. If Posey cannot get the catching right, how can he be trusted to figure out the rest?

Another broad question that’s best not to answer. Not yet, anyway.