The Giants announced that catcher Joey Bart has been reinstated from the 10-day injured list, with fellow backstop Austin Wynns designated for assignment in a corresponding move.
Wynns, 32, was selected to the club’s roster on the weekend as they dealt with a sudden catching shortage. They selected the contract of Roberto Pérez towards the end of March, preventing him from opting out and returning to the open market. He gave the club three catchers, joining Bart and Rule 5 pick Blake Sabol, though Sabol’s ability to play the outfield made the setup workable. However, Bart was placed on the IL due to a mild back strain after just one game and Pérez recently suffered a shoulder strain that sent him to the 60-day IL. With Sabol suddenly the last catcher standing, Wynns was added to help the club out, though he’s now lost his roster spot after two plate appearances yesterday.
The club will now have one week to trade Wynns or pass him through waivers. Any player that has previously been outrighted in their career can reject an outright assignment and elect free agency. Since Wynns has multiple previous outrights, he will have that opportunity, though it wouldn’t be a shock to see him stick around. He was designated for assignment by the club in January but accepted an outright assignment after clearing waivers at that time.
The veteran spent most of his career with the Orioles until losing his roster spot after the 2021 season. He then signed a minor league deal with the Phillies, though that club traded him to the Giants without calling him up to the big leagues. Between the O’s and Giants, Wynns has a .230/.274/.335 batting line for a 67 wRC+ in 182 career games.
Bart, 26, will now look to get back on track after that brief injury setback. With Pérez set to miss the next couple of months at least, Wynns off the roster and Sabol in the mix for some outfield time, Bart’s path to playing time behind the plate is clear for the time being. That could change in a few weeks, as Gary Sánchez recently signed a minor league deal with the club. Given that Sánchez can opt out of that deal on May 1 and president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi recently spoke highly of him, it seems well within the realm of possibility Sánchez gets a roster spot after a few weeks of pseudo Spring Training in the minors.
For now, Bart will have some runway to get into a groove. Once a highly-touted prospect, he’s struck out in 38% of his 408 career plate appearances in the majors thus far. He hit 11 home runs last year in just 97 games but his career batting line of .222/.294/.351 amounts to a wRC+ of just 84. He also hasn’t been graded especially well behind the plate, earning a -5 mark from Defensive Runs Saved to this point.
Good to hear Joey is back, let’s hope he is ready to hit.
100%
He won’t
That reply didn’t age well. He is. Bart has the best batting average of any Giants catchers so far this year
Good news everyone. Bay Area Rapid Transit is running again.
I see what you did there
Kind of surprised Wynn’s was dfa’s. With all the injuries to their catchers, you’d think they’d hold onto as many as they can.
Gary Sanchez just got good news?
#CCCTL
Yeah Gary Sanchez is about the only person this isn’t good news for
I anticipated Wynns hopefully being DFA. It’s the wisest move for the team right now
Wynns isn’t going anywhere. They DFAd him in the offseason, nobody else wanted him. That’s why he’s played with the Giants this year
Wynns probably isn’t going anywhere, but timing is part of the equation. Just because a player isn’t claimed one month doesn’t mean he won’t be claimed the next month. Depends of injuries and openings on other teams.
Mets may pick up Wynns now because of their losing their starting catcher.
I doubt it. Nido is the best defensive option. Alvarez is getting his shot. They have Michael Perez in Syracuse, so he would probably get the call before someone like Wynns.
Out of options. Only way he can go to the minors.
avenger65 — Giants don’t have space for him on the 40-man roster.
Wynns wouldn’t come back even if you asked him back .
I’ll have you know Wynns above replacement.
War. Huh. What is it good for
Wynns isn’t going anywhere. They’ve DFAd him before and all 29 other teams refused to claim him
Suprised they got rid of Wynns. He had a decent year as a backup for them last year offensively. Is he not that good defensivly? Bart has done nothing at the major league level, wonder how many chances hes going to get because of his top draft pick status
You mean they got rid of Wynns *again. He’s not going anywhere. They did this already and all 29 other teams failed to claim him. That’s the only reason he’s played for the Giants this year
Bart hit double didgit HR’s in his rookie year, and didn’t even play the whole season in the majors. I don’t know why his draft status bothers you
Last year of options.
Apparently many Giants people think Hunter Bailey is good to go defensively, and took steps forward offensively last year. Some saying he could factor later this year. So yeah, time might be running out for Joey.
Replace Hunter with Patrick.
Early onset dementia is killing me.
Now that you demention it, Patrick Bishop is out for the year.
Ha ha. Indeed.
I think it depends – there are a lot of ifs in the catching situation right now – sabol if he isn’t kept on the active roster will be lost due to his rule 5 status – sanchez still hasn’t played yet so he is still being evaluated and now that wynns is DFA’d he may or may not come back. That means that you could have a glut of guys or your only stable go to’s may be Bart, and Genoves – and Bailey if he continues to step forward.
Bailey is off to a hot start with Richmond, which is welcome news after his cold start at Eugene last year. He might end up being the guy after all.
That said, I think Bailey will be in Richmond then Sacramento until September.
Matos and Auerbach off to hot starts as well. Good news on the farm for sure.
My assumption is that Wynns having been through waivers once already would pass through again. Also gives Sanchez a clearer path, I don’t think they are super high on any of these guys so if Wynns gets selected they always have Sanchez as a backup and of course Sabol in case of emergency.
This is great news for the Giants! Missing 2 of our most powerful bats, in Bart and Haniger, has been crippling the Giants. Hopefully Bart comes out strong and Haniger isn’t far behind
This is not a Wynns-win situation for all involved.
Austin Wynns always looks like the supremely disapproving yet concerned childhood buddy from an after school special. I watched a lot of him with the O’s and he just has that sensitive look on his face like he needs to sit down with you and talk about what’s going on…WITH YOU!
He’s Wynnsome?
Zaidi will probably try to trade Wynns to Seattle for Solak. Both are DFAs.
I’ve been watching the Arizona Fall League for a while, biggest disappointments Joey Bart, Christian Pache, Jo Adell