2024 Depth Charts: Catcher

In the Squaaat

Photo Credit: Kevin Cunningham | Giant Futures

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So far in this year’s Depth Charts series, we’ve covered:

• 2b

• RHP - Starters

• Corner Outfielders

A few years back, I was asked to write the “Top Talents 25 and Under” section for Baseball Prospectus’ Giants’ prospect rankings. I’ve always loved that BPro adds that 25U element to their rankings, as it strips away the artificial veneer of “prospect-dom” and hones right in on something much more important: how much young talent does an organization have on hand? And so, when asked if I was available to provide the list for that year, I responded with an enthusiastic “Yes.” But I did wonder if they had noticed something unusual about that specific moment in Giants’ history. As I wrote in that piece:

Amazingly, the Giants have just one player in their entire organization who is eligible for the 25 and Under list, but NOT eligible for the prospect list. And if you’re a Where’s Waldo adept, you will have spotted him by now: Shaun Anderson, who entered last year as the club’s top starting pitching prospect and enters this year as a potential candidate for their closer or setup roles or potentially some piggyback/swing starter position. 

(For the record, I placed Anderson 8th on my list, just below Mauricio Dubón and above Seth Corry and Sean Hjelle, which, in retrospect, feels just about right).

Now things haven’t always been quite so egregious as they were that year, when members of the top 10 prospect list quite literally failed to qualify for the 25U list, but getting young talent onto the Giants’ major league roster has felt like pushing molasses through a sandbox for too many years at this point.

I bring all of this up today, because the Catcher Depth Chart gives us a wonderful opportunity to celebrate something new and wonderful: a “Top Talents 25 and Under” for the Giants this year would NOT be a simple regurgitation of the top 10 prospect list. It would include 24-year-old Patrick Bailey, and still 21-year-old Luis Matos, and 24-year-old Casey Schmitt. Pending physical, it would include a 25-year-old Jung-Hoo Lee (who won’t turn 26 until next August). Heck, even should-be-All-Star closer Camilo Doval has barely turned 26. In fact, it does suddenly feel like we’ve entered a figurative new season of Giants’ baseball. Spring, with its fresh green shoots, appears to be blooming ever so tentatively across the Giants’ roster.

And it’s blooming in just the places where you want to see it ultimately flourishing. As I’ve said many times before, I am utterly convinced that the 162-game schedule was scientifically created in a laboratory with the sole purpose of cruelly exposing teams that are old and slow up the middle. With Bailey and Lee anchoring an up the middle unit that also includes 27-year-old Thairo Estrada and 22-year-old Marco Luciano, the Giants, for the first time in memory it would seem, are likely to feature an entirely 20-something group in the middle of the diamond. There is uncertainty in that group of players for sure. But, for the first time in a long time, it is NOT the uncertainty of decline.

And in many ways, it does feel like the man in the squaaat was the spear’s tip of that push of youth onto the 26-man (maybe that’s Schmitt erasure, but this ain’t the 3b post). So rejoice in our youth, Giants’ fans….it’s been a long time coming.

Today, we look at those who would follow in Patty Bailey’s footsteps….or arm strokes…or something…those who don the tools of ignorance. (Also, in writing this intro, I’ve just realized I’ll need to pen a “Top Talents 25 and Under” for the Giants before this winter is over — add it to the list).