The Giants announced they’ve signed catcher Curt Casali to a big league contract. San Francisco optioned Jakson Reetz to Triple-A Sacramento in a corresponding move. To create a 40-man roster spot, they moved Tom Murphy from the 10-day to the 60-day injured list. Casali, a Beverly Hills Sports Council client, is guaranteed a $1MM base salary, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post (on X).
It’s the second stint in San Francisco for the 35-year-old backstop. Casali signed a major league free agent deal back in 2021 after being non-tendered by the Reds. He spent a year and a half in the organization, combining for a .218/.317/.357 slash line over 357 plate appearances. San Francisco packaged him alongside Matthew Boyd to the Mariners at the 2022 deadline for a pair of minor leaguers.
Casali hasn’t produced much at the MLB level since that trade. He hit .125/.300/.225 in 16 games with Seattle. Cincinnati brought him back on a $3.25MM free agent deal that winter, but his return stint with the Reds didn’t go as hoped. Casali lost a good portion of the season to a foot injury. He played sparingly as the third catcher even when healthy, hitting .175/.290/.200 over 96 plate appearances.
The Reds made the easy call to decline their end of a $4MM mutual option last winter. Casali spent Spring Training with the Marlins after inking an offseason minor league contract. He didn’t hit at all during camp and was released before Opening Day. Casali has spent the past six weeks in Triple-A with the Cubs, where he was out to a fantastic start to the season.
In 23 games, he mashed at a .362/.489/.551 clip for Chicago’s top affiliate. He connected on a pair of homers and drew 15 walks against 16 strikeouts. While he’s certainly not going to continue hitting at that level in the majors, it was a strong enough showing to get back to Oracle Park. Casali’s familiarity with the San Francisco front office and much of the clubhouse no doubt helped matters.
That said, the Giants surely didn’t envision looking for MLB catching help this early in the season. San Francisco entered the year with a surplus behind the plate. Patrick Bailey had emerged as their clear #1 option. They inked Murphy to a two-year deal over the offseason to add a power-hitting backup. That pushed Blake Sabol to Triple-A and former #2 overall draftee Joey Bart, who is out of options, off the roster entirely. San Francisco traded Bart to the Pirates during the first week of the season.
They’ve been hit with a brutal stretch of injury luck at the position since then. Bailey landed on the seven-day concussion injured list on May 4. He was reinstated over the weekend but went back on the concussion list last night as he dealt with renewed virus-like symptoms. San Francisco lost Murphy to a significant left knee sprain one day after Bailey’s first IL placement. Today’s transfer rules him out of action into early July.
Casali and Sabol will work as the MLB catching duo for the time being. Reetz heads back to Triple-A as the top depth option. Sabol still has options remaining, so the Giants could send him back to Sacramento once Bailey returns from the IL.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
He always had a lower pitcher ERA than his counterparts last time with SFG. And he used to have some pop in his bat.
But at this point the season is looking bleak for the Giants.
Don’t give up Dave, this is baseball and anything can happen. I’ve never seen this many injuries happen on a team in this short of a span in any sport. It’s unprecedented. The biggest being Bailey and Lee. Heartbreaking really.
Too early to pack it in. Let’s see how the kids play and get as healthy as we can. Press on. If we are not that far away at the deadline, then hang on. If we are buried by then, we can trade Snell or Conforto or Soler or anyone who is healthy and hitting at the time for a few prospects if we can find a partner, no shame in that. Go Giants!!!
No shame in continuing to be a fan either Agnes !
Can always count on you for that.
“I’ve never seen this many injuries”…Welcome to the club, agnes, because you’ve got probably 7-9 other teams that could make the same claim. Injuries are rampant among several MLB clubs this year. But the Giants are paying for their lack of success in drafting, international signings and development more than anything else if you ask me.
How quickly Agnes and Giants’ fans forget that they were rejoicing over the Dodgers’ pitching go on IR. Injuries happen. Good teams persevere. Bad teams come up with excuses. The reality is that this sub-500 team is on Farhan and he should be fired.
Woo hoo. Agnes is back. Every cloud has a silver lining !
Casali’s had a lower pitcher ERA with pretty much every staff he’s caught. If he can replicate that, the Giants can probably live with anemic production at the plate.
This is why Austin Hedges was signed by Cleveland. He has no bat but is probably the best receiver in the game.
Yeah but Casali couldn’t throw out my 85 year old mother stealing second base. At Iowa they threw out 3 of over 60 base stealers so far. Might as well be zero.
A’s as a team are producing at the plate more than giants in following:
HRs, RBI, Runs, SB, etc – they lead giants in almost every statistical measure in less games.
Even Pitching A’s lead in ERA, K, Saves, etc – They lead in almost EVERY Pitching category as well.
LET THAT SINK IN
Welcome back Curt!
Good to see Curt bag in the bigs.
Wouldn’t have just been easier to keep Bart? I know it is hard to keep three catchers but man I don’t think Casals is gonna hit his weight.
Ya if only they could have seen into the future. Bart has not been hitting either tho.
with the bucs, bart has an ops+ of 128, or nearly 30% better than the average major leaguer, and if you consider the average catcher is about 20% worse than a league average hitter you might realize bart has not done too poorly with a change of scenery. hindsight is 20/20, but im sure SF would love to have him back.
Yes it would have been easier to keep Bart, but this is another one of Farhan’s miscalculations — the Murphy signing and most of the other free agent signings thus far in 2024.
Casali’s value would be in his defense not offense == he was Posey’s backup in the 107 win 2021 season. I believed he caught Webb/Gausman when they pitched in 2021. With Bailey out, SF could not survive defensively with backup Sabol (his “wild pitches”, passed balls, errant throws, catcher’s interference, bad framing, etc.) as he is on the OJT as a catcher.
How can one “miscalculate” a future injury?
Giant fans blame Farhan when it rains. It’s the easy thing to do.
Because that is all he has produced. Rain. No sunshine with this idiot.
We should all agree about Bart, who started on a tear but has leveled off but still more productive than Murphy. However I have no issue with Casali because sabol and reetz are not enough to control what this staff will be in a month or two.
More slow old roster spot wasters. We were promised a younger faster team, boy were we hoodwinked.
Anyone wanna bet fatty Crawford will be the next signing? Probably Belt right after that.
The Giants have an organizational problem letting go.
I’ll take that bet !
Along with one that you would never say “fatty Crawford “ to his face.
Such disrespect for a classy player that gave his best years to SFG. Shame on you!
“Class ” players don’t go whining to the press because they weren’t re-signed. He’s the one who burned that bridge and disrespected the organization (and by extension the fans) that made him very wealthy while over-paying him the last couple years of his tenure. His weight gain made his game suffer. Whose fault is that? You’d really like to see him back on the team? That’s crazy talk. He should’ve retired before last season.
My bet was against them resigning him.
Maybe reading what you posted, then my reply would help. He was a great player for SFG for many years. For you to call him fat, or whiney without having to confront him is just weak.
So every time a fan on a message board has a negative opinion about a baseball player they need to confront them personally? This is a new rule I wasn’t aware of. Boy do I have a lot of confrontin’ to do!
And yes, he’s fat. He’s currently obese. He’s disrespecting the game and the fans who pay his salary by not keeping in shape.
Vogelbach will be released soon from the Jays. Same with Rowdy Telez. A couple big guys for ya.
Wait…Rowdy Telez, the wrastler?!
Well, that was Rowdy Roddy Telez and he was a drunk and a skirt chaser … unsure of his bat to ball skills
Bart is batting .205 as of Monday….
After today’s game, Bart currently at .229 BA and .809 OPS as Pirates back-up catcher — but small sample size. Bart’s primary value to the SF would have been his MLB level defense (and not hitting). Farhan was intent on running Bart out of town after he signed backup Murphy to a 2 year/ $8M contract. Another Farhan miscalculation as Murphy was well known to be weak defensively, and has been a disaster offensively so far in 2024 (and is now on the 60 day IL). Looks to me that Bart has put the old hex on Farhan as payback.
Even Zaidi saw with the torrid spring Bart was having and tried to sneak him thru waivers after having him on opening day roster and giving him zero opportunities. Wasn’t well played but with this signing I don’t have to watch reetz at bats unless I’m at a River cats game.
What could possibly my go wrong?
Curt Casali was spent in 2022. What are the Giants doing? Ludicrous signing.
They have zero catching depth at high levels.
So how did Casali get from the Cubs to the Giants? Did the Cubs release him? Did he have an out clause? Was he traded for a Gatorade bucket? The article doesn’t make that clear unless I missed it.
When did he opt out of the cubs contract?
Logjammer- Casali was released by the Cubs. It was probably part of the deal that if he got a MLB deal he would be released. It’s done all the time.
Right before first pitch of the ICubs game..took a flight to SF and was in the starting lineup. Crazy
Welcome back, Curt! Oh, this awesome. Curt was such a good Giant. No, even better, a FOREVER GIANT! This is the exact thing that the Giants needed to turn their season around. Great move, Farhan.
… said nobody.
yes, but this is another example (among many) of trying to fix another one of his miscalculations in judgment, this time, in the catching position that he created. In sum, first signing Murphy as a FA backup, eventually leading to Bart’s DFA, and no MLB level defense backup catcher on the 40 man roster. Giants fans are sick and tire of Farhan;s doing the circle back with possibly more to come if his FAs do not perform and his FAs do the opt-in.
GIants fan recognized when he was the catcher the SP staff had much lower ERA than any other catcher they put out.
Wow, awesome.
10 tall guys running back and forth on a hard wood floor. Enjoy the game close up from your sweat mopping duties Jack !
And they just don’t care about me personally !
Still thinking of you, Jack. Hope those NBA teams give you the love you deserve.
Jack Hoffman this week:
Wah Wah Wah. And the don’t care about me….
Nope. You said it and I’m going to be mocking you for it for a long time.
Because I care about you.
And just like that, he was GONE !
Such an embarrassing fall from grace for Farhan. I mean, he didn’t have far to fall to this pathetic level of diminishment in roster construction. Abysmally bad. I would say worse than Bloom did in Boston. Farhan will not get another POBO/GM in baseball after this abject failure. Giants fans need to revolt.
One lucky year. He needs to go back to Canada.
Farhan doing everything to help other clubs.
Ok now there is some Great Van Fleet walk up music back in SF
“That said, the Giants surely didn’t envision looking for MLB catching help this early in the season. San Francisco entered the year with a surplus behind the plate”
There really is no such thing as a surplus behind the plate. The same with starting pitching.
Yeah but hopefully it’s all at the AAA level and doesn’t have to be delved into very much.