The Giants signed catcher Andrew Knizner to a minor league contract. The deal was first reflected on the MLB.com transaction log. He has already made his organizational debut, collecting hits in each of his first three at-bats with Triple-A Sacramento.
Knizner is picking up where he’d left off as a member of the Nationals organization. The 30-year-old had raked at a .382/.516/.500 clip with more walks than strikeouts over 23 games for their top affiliate. Washington nevertheless granted him his release over the weekend. Knizner was set to trigger an opt-out. The Nats preferred to stick with their current catching tandem of Keibert Ruiz and Riley Adams rather than override the opt-out by calling him up.
While Knizner obviously isn’t going to keep up this pace, he’s a productive minor league hitter. He carried a .287/.379/.435 batting line over parts of four Triple-A seasons into play tonight. He has had a far tougher time against MLB pitching. Knizner is a career .210/.279/.317 hitter in almost 900 plate appearances at the big league level. He spent parts of five seasons backing up Yadier Molina and Willson Contreras, respectively, in St. Louis.
Knizner moved to Texas on a $1.825MM free agent deal heading into 2024. He spent most of the year as Jonah Heim’s backup, but he didn’t perform especially well. Knizner hit .167/.183/.211 over 35 games. Texas acquired Carson Kelly at the deadline and designated Knizner for assignment not long after. He landed with the Diamondbacks via waiver claim. His time in Arizona consisted of 22 Triple-A games. The Snakes outrighted him off their 40-man roster without getting him into a big league contest.
Patrick Bailey is entrenched as the starting catcher in San Francisco. Sam Huff hasn’t provided much in sporadic playing time as the backup. He’s hitting .200 with one homer and 22 strikeouts in 49 plate appearances. Knizner joins Max Stassi and Logan Porter as non-roster depth at Triple-A. Knizner has been the most productive of that trio in the minors this year, potentially positioning him as the top challenger if the Giants decide to move on from the out-of-options Huff at any point.
Catching on this team is terrible, please can I have Joey Bart back.
At least Bailey is on track to win another gold glove. But neither Huff or Bailey can’t even get on base like 30% of the time.
Austin Hedges 2.0. Gold glove, frozen turd bat.
Dooper, What a ridiculous take. Sure Bailey doesn’t hit much, but he’s not just some good defensive catcher like Hedges, Bailey is arguably the best defensive catcher in MLB, and he’s in the discussion for best overall defender in MLB regardless of position. And don’t take my word for it, check out Statcast for confirmation. Hedges only dreamed to be Patrick Bailey behind the plate.
The disrespect you show towards Austin Hedges’ defense is insane. You just glaze giants
I don’t disrespect Hedges. I appreciate a good defensive catcher. Since you didn’t follow advice and check out Statcast, I’ll do it for you. Compare catcher stats for 2024:
Blocks above average: Bailey -1, Hedges 4
Framing: Bailey 16, Hedges 6
Pop time: Bailey 1.85, Hedges 1.94
Catcher’s CS above average: Bailey 10, Hedges 1
Fielding run value: Bailey 22, Hedges 8
Hedges is a fine defensive catcher, but other than his better blocking skills. he’s a not nearly the defensive catcher that Bailey is. Bailey provides greater value behind the plate.
Plus, career OPS+: Bailey 75, Hedges 53
Hedges wishes he could hit as well as Bailey.
Jean….plenty of good points…except one….Hedges does not wish he could hit as well as Bailey….there are hundreds of other players he can choose before Bailey. (That is tongue in cheek)
Wouldn’t it be more fair to compare their stats at the same age? Hedges 2018 vs Bailey’s 2024.
Steelers 6x, Good point. Yeah, Bailey isn’t going to cause much envy for his hitting.
Dooper, So, why don’t you?
Don’t feel like it. Just giving a point to consider. It might be less biased that way rather than comparing a 25 yr old catcher to a 31 year old catcher. Also considering Hedges is essentially a backup and Bailey caught over 900 innings last year while Hedges caught less than 400.
Fine, since you’re either too lazy, or don’t want to see the stats, afraid they won’t back up your post, I’ll do it for you.
Comparing Bailey 2024 to Hedges 2018:
Blocks above average: Bailey -1, Hedges 7
Framing: Bailey 16, Hedges 6
Pop time: Bailey 1.85, Hedges 1.94
Catcher’s CS above average: Bailey 10, Hedges 0
Fielding run value: Bailey 22, Hedges 7
Again blocking is the only advantage to Hedges, As for the other categories, pop time, with Bailey tied for 2nd, and Hedges, tied for 6th, is the only skill, where he comes close. Otherwise Hedges is far behind
I might remind you that you were the one to make the initial comparison between the two. And, as the numbers show, that was a very poor comp.
Thanks for looking it up. I stand corrected.
Well, you were correct that a 2024/2018 comparison was much more fair. I respect good defensive catchers, like Hedges, and was impressed with how well he’s maintained that good defense for a long time now..
When it comes to catcher, what he does behind the plate is much more important than what he does at the plate. I wish Bailey was a bit more effective with the bat, but the guy is in the conversation for best defensive catcher in baseball. That’s way more valuable than some league average hitter. To go with offense over defense, a catcher would need to be Kyle Schwarber, or someone similar, with the bat. I’m good with Bailey. He’s no where near the Giants’ biggest problem.
Hell no, he’s one of the only guys we have who knows how to hold a bat.
Why cuz he chokes up?
Joey Bart couldn’t handle the pressure of being a backup catcher in SF. He was given plenty of opportunities to stick. He’s hitting better in Pittsburgh because of no pressure. Noone even pressing him for playing time. Probably the team that fits him the best. Happy for him but wasn’t sorry he departed. Good guy.
Hasn’t Joey been the starting catcher for Pittsburgh almost since he’s been traded? They moved him up the depth chart over their own first rounder.
5TUNT1N: I believe you are correct about Joey starting shortly after the trade. Which was the point of my post. The Pirates sent their starting catcher down to AAA because he was struggling so bad and they inserted Joey in the starting lineup. Not a lot of pressure on him for any of the incumbents to pressure Joey. Worked out great for the Pirates so far. And Joey.
Bart has 1 HR and 11 RBI in 133 AB. Bailey has 1 HR and 14 RBI in 126 AB. Bart does have a much better batting average, But Bailey’s defense far outweighs that. So Bart wouldn’t be starting for the Giants anyway.
mab, I couldn’t have said it any better myself. thx
Also I’m not talking about starting Bart over Bailey, simply as a backup for which we’ve spent about 15 million on over the last few years and gotten very little production.
Great. Just what the Giants need, another AAAA hitter. 🥱
Not really sure the back-up catcher is supposed to be the Barry Bonds of the team
I’d take most anyone vs. Huff. He is horrible with the bat. Never seen anyone stand there and take the pitches he does. He’s afraid to swing the bat because he’ll miss. Bailey seems to have regressed on offense this season but he has gotten a lot of clutch hits the last couple years
First, btw.
First what ?
…grader?
Let’s go! Hope the giants give him an opportunity
Knizner is worth a look. Huff was supposed to be the better hitting back-up, but hasn’t really delivered much in that regard. Bailey is valuable, but it would be nice to have a back-up that could hit a little.
Somewhere Murphy just twitched mid nap.
I totally forgot about Murphy. There’s probably a good reason for that.
You’re not alone. The writer made no mention either. Looked to be a good signing at the time, now so bad that he has been totally forgotten.
Whoops, he twitched again.
Lol. I see Murphy retiring after his contract is up. The backup that would’ve been interesting to see.
I agree big time. Bring Knizner up immediately. Then we can also listen to Kuiper butcher his name. Lol
Miller isn’t much better.
Don’t get me wrong, I love being able to listen/watch Kuiper, Krukow, Miller and Fleming. Really great crew. It’s just that Kuiper is mispronouncing players names more often each year.
IMO, of the 4 announcers, I dislike Fleming the most. He babbles too much, and tries too hard to be funny, and sound knowledgeable.
For a guy that went to Stanford, which is supposed to be a sign of being smart, I was shocked to hear him use the word ‘irregardless’.
Recently, he was babbling about Penn Stations being in cities all along the east coast. He named 3, NY, Philly, and DC. That surprised me since he’s from DC, and there is no Penn Station there, it’s Union Station. In general I find him annoying.
I’ll be honest too. Dave Fleming is too much of a “homer”. It’s irritating when he talks so much. John Miller is a pleasure to listen to. I always like when he talks about when he first started play by play. Way back in the day. Great story teller. Mike Krukow give’s an honest opinion even if it’s doesn’t make one of the home team player’s happy. He has the gift of being critical but presenting it in a great way. And he has tons of baseball knowledge like Miller has. Duane Kuiper is my favorite. Always making jokes at just the right time, Tons of knowledge. Great to listen too. I’m always disappointed when the Giants go on the road. And it’s usually Fleming who takes over on most road series back east. Kuiper never used to botch players’ names. I wish he would just take 5 minutes before they air to read the opposing players’ names correct. Krukow does it well. There is a reason they’re always in the top 2 or 3 for a broadcast crew. They’ve all been around baseball for a long time. We are very lucky having this group to ourselves for years. It is outta here!!. I also enjoy Javy Lopez and Sean Estes. Hunter Pence is a work in progress. But each time I hear him he gets better and better.
I agree, especially with your takes on Kuip, Miller, and road games. And to me Javy is the best of the 2nd team guys. Those other guys aren’t bad, but Javy has a great sense humor.
That’s also why I like Kuip. Sure he makes mistakes, but that doesn’t bother me. He has great comedic timing, and his sense of humor, dry and understated, is what I appreciate most. Plus Kruk and Kuip both tell great stories. I loved the one Kruk told where Yul Brenner threw out the first pitch.
I once heard Miller talking about a Japanese announcer that patterned his style from Vin Scully. Then Miller did an impression that sounded exactly like Scully speaking Japanese. It was amazing. I wish he would do that again, but since he’s mostly radio, I probably wouldn’t hear it if he did.
Good to see the Giants taking a small step to address lack of depth.