The Giants placed catcher Patrick Bailey on the seven-day injured list for concussion-related symptoms. Blake Sabol was called up from Triple-A to take Bailey’s spot on the active roster.
Alec Bohm fouled a ball off Bailey’s mask in the first inning of San Francisco’s 4-3 loss to the Phillies yesterday. (In a costly game for both teams, Trea Turner also suffered a hamstring strain that has resulted in an IL trip.) Bailey tried to stay in the game but in the next inning, he left the field and was replaced by Tom Murphy behind the plate. The Giants didn’t immediately place Bailey in concussion protocol, but the catcher did receive treatment and was announced as suffering from blurred vision.
The specialized seven-day version of the IL allows players and teams a little extra flexibility when dealing with potential concussions. If a player passes tests, he only has to miss seven days instead of the standard 10 days, and a team is likewise not left short-handed on its roster if a player is going day-to-day while dealing with any lingering symptoms. It also removes any inclination for the player to try and play through the symptoms, which carries increased danger given the nature of head-related injury.
In the best-case scenario, Bailey would be back in the Giants’ lineup in seven days’ time, though the team might be a little more careful with its franchise catcher given his past concussion history. As MLB.com’s Maria Guardado notes, Bailey has been playing wearing a Q-collar device for extra safety since he went on the seven-day IL last September, though he was able to return from that stint in a minimal amount of time.
After making his MLB debut last season, Bailey’s excellent defense established him as San Francisco’s catcher of the future, and he has taken some big steps forward at the plate in 2024. Bailey had a modest .233/.285/.359 slash line and seven homers over 353 plate appearances in 2023, but he has hit .278/.344/.456 with three home runs in his first 91 PA this season. With the Statcast numbers largely backing up this breakout, Bailey’s absence is an even bigger blow to a Giants lineup that is lacking in consistent production.
The combination of Murphy and Sabol will hold the fort at catcher until Bailey is back. Murphy has posted some very good numbers in limited or part-time duty with the Mariners but his bat has been cold so far in 2024, while Sabol is now set to receive his first MLB playing time of 2024. Sabol was a Rule 5 pick in 2022, and he spent the entire 2023 season on San Francisco’s roster playing as a part-time catcher and left fielder. Sabol hit .235/.301/.394 with 13 home runs in 344 PA during his rookie season.
Noooo. Little Dumper is really hitting his stride
Joey Bart says hi
More like arrrgh.
Cuz he be a dirty pirate.
D’oh!
Joey who ?
Bart is a good dude. But 2 for last 21. Murphy not much better. But Bart wouldn’t help at this point. Murphy will get it going. D needs to improve more than his hitting imo.
Can’t wait to see if Sabol can provide a spark to the offense with his ominous sneering lip twitch in his at bats.
A spark? These hitters have taken 125 ABs this isn’t a slump. They’re just bad
Giants offense is abysmal. Zero impact bats.
Team projects to be a 4th place loser in a tough NL West Division
Nobody asked for 27 chump opinions.
But Farhan is a genius. And he signs players to big contracts because the fans call for him to do it. Farhan is a fraud. Fire Farhan.
All good. An opportunity for regular at bats to get Murphy going.
Fopp this did not age well.
I had high hopes for Murphy. Hope the MRI shows good results. My knee pops all the time, but I’m 64 and only have about 20 squats left in me for life.
Giants did try this off season I’ll give em that but giving up draft picks when their farm is one of the worst and loosing international money while being the exact same team as last year don’t make sense. Signing Lee who never faced MLB caliber pitching to twice as much as Bryan Reynolds is making and not improving the bullpen much don’t make much sense. Just like signing Snell with some of the worst command and inconsistenty so late is also not a good idea. Should of signed Monty who can throw strikes and not loose a Draft pick. But it’s all good 4th place here they go
Ya. One month in and time to despair !
lol. Oh the misery of it all.
Pickle: Well, they did make a pretty decent offer to JDM, who turned them down. They also wined and dined Ohtani who was messing with the Giants and Jays when everyone knew all along he was going to the Dodgers. Last year it was judge bullshitting the Giants and other teams just to force the nyy to give him more money. Hopefully the Giants – my first favorite team – won’t fall for this crap anymore.
Monty? He’s off to a solid start.
Btw, I’m kinda tired of the Reynolds trade being brought up.McCutcheon had an excellent year in 2017 with Pittsburgh. 28 homers hit .280. 11 steals. At age 31. And Giants then traded Reynolds who only had a minor league career to that point. He wasn’t a top prospect. A good one but not a TOP one. It was a gamble and its irrelevant to the Lee signing. Yep, Reynolds, tho struggling now has been excellent himself. And Montgomery has been lousy last 2 starts. The bullpen? hot and cold. But the youth looks good there. 5 months left to get things straightened out.
Not worried yet. Plenty of time to turn things around. Much more concerned about the 4” of snow that just fell and not being able to start my summer crop.
yikes, what part of country you in?
California up above Jackson.
4000’ up in the forest.
The groundhog was a liar !
Pickle, First off, you’re terrible at math. Lee makes about $5M more per year than Reynolds, per AAV. Reynolds AAV is $13.75 M. Lee’s AAV is about $18.8M which is not close to the double of Reynolds AAV, which would be $27.5M.
Second, Lee was a FA on the open market, while Reynolds was still under team control when he was extended. Reynolds deal is 8 years to Lee’s 6. Both of those things are why Lee has a higher AAV.
Third, the Reynolds trade is old news, done under the previous regime. Zaidi had nothing to do with it.
And fourth, it’s obvious that you are not familiar with what Montgomery has done this season. After a nice first game, he’s been pretty bad. In only 10 IP he’s given up 9 ERs for an 8.10 ERA. He’s given up 13 hits and 4 BBs. That’s a 1.7 WHIP. Small sample, sure, but if you’re going to judge Snell on his small sample you have to judge Montgomery on that as well.
The actual score of the game was Philly – 14 Giants – 3. Nice mistake there, Mark.
That game was a comedy of errors from everyone, and it was pretty much over after about 5 minutes after the delayed start. Just about everyone goofed to prolong the first inning annihilation, but passed balls certainly didn’t help.
Tom Murphy has looked like a lousy signing so far. And I forgot all about Blake Sabol, who was demoted to AAA. I recall Sabol being decent with the bat, but not much of a catcher, really more of an emergency catcher. Can they afford to lean on him for several weeks or are they going to find themselves increasingly on the wrong side of .500?
Who else is out there if they need to make a minor trade?