The Giants have agreed to a minor league contract with free-agent catcher Andrew Knapp, MLBTR has confirmed. John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle tweeted last night that the Giants “might be” adding Knapp and sending him to Triple-A Sacramento.
This will be the fourth organization of the year for Knapp, who was in Spring Training as a non-roster invitee with the Reds but exercised an out in his deal in order to sign a Major League contract with the Pirates. Pittsburgh designated Knapp for assignment in mid-May, after which he elected free agency and inked a minor league deal with the Mariners. Seattle selected Knapp to the big league roster late last month and then designated him for assignment two weeks later. Knapp again rejected an outright in favor of a return to the market, and he’ll now head to the Giants’ top affiliate in Sacramento.
Knapp, 30, is plenty familiar with Giants skipper Gabe Kapler, dating back to the pair’s days together in Philadelphia. The Phillies selected Knapp with the No. 53 overall draft pick back in 2013, and he went on to spend parts of five seasons as their backup catcher (two of which were under Kapler, in 2018-19). The switch-hitting Knapp appeared in 309 games over that half-decade run in Philly, batting a combined .214/.314/.322 through 827 trips to the plate. He’s hitting just .114/.205/.143 this year, but that’s in a minuscule sample of 39 plate appearances. He’s also spent parts of four seasons in Triple-A, where he’s a .252/.322/.389 hitter.
Catching depth became an unexpected area of need for the Giants when Buster Posey abruptly retired on the heels of last year’s sensational rebound campaign. Posey’s age-34 season saw the former NL Rookie of the Year and MVP turn the clock back with a .304/.390/.499 batting line — his most-productive season since 2014. Posey’s decision to retire on a high note prompted the Giants to turn things over to former No. 2 overall pick Joey Bart, but Bart has yet to fully find his stride in the Majors.
The 25-year-old Bart is hitting just .185/.307/.361 this season, although he recently returned from a June demotion to Sacramento and showed some improvement in 32 plate appearances leading into the All-Star break. Curt Casali, Austin Wynns, Michael Papierski an Yermin Mercedes have seen time behind the plate as well (just one inning in Mercedes’ case). On the whole, Giants catchers are hitting just .203/.303/.355 in 2022.
With Casali on the injured list due to an oblique strain, Papierski now in Cincinnati following a waiver claim, and Mercedes being more an option at first base/DH than at catcher, the Giants are light on healthy, experienced catchers. Bart and Wynns figure to continue handling the bulk of the workload for now, but Knapp will give them some additional cover in the event of further injuries.
Cool
Didn’t the giants horde catchers last year or the year before as well? As well as drafting catchers #1 with top ten picks in 2018 and 2020? Miss buster
hoard
They have set quotas for Catchers…..and yes they have gone wild to attain as many underperforming Catchers as they can. Casilla is the only one so far that has panned out.
I’m still rooting for Bart. Have no idea what to expect from him, though.
Bart looks so much better since coming back up. The strikeouts will always be a thing, but the way he handles the pitching staff is what matters most.
Bart looks like he is still a year away from being MLB ready
But there really aren’t many catchers hitting their weight. That said, defense matters at the catcher position more anyway, and any offense you get is gravy.
If MLB moves to an electronic strike zone, framing skills will no longer be needed, base stealing is disappearing in the age of analytics so a strong arm isn’t as much of a need either. Just give the pitchers an ear piece so that the analytics teams can call the pitches and there won’t be much left for a catcher to be responsible for compared to years ago.
I couldn’t disagree more. Framing is only one of the many things that are part of a catcher’s value. SBs aren’t going away. MLB is making rule changes to bring them back. And if teams wanted the analytics department to call pitches they would have been signaling the pitch from the dugout, the colleges do it, a long time ago.
Analytics is for defining trends and taking advantage of the most likely odds. Pitch calling has to do with what the batter does in the immediacy of the AB. Does he appear to be sitting on a certain pitch. How he took, or swung, at the FB. Does the batter appear to not be seeing the breaking ball.
Any team that thinks the analytics department should be calling pitches is a dumb team.
Plus the catcher is a coach on the field, relaying info to the manager, The catcher controls the pace of the game, There are a ton of things the catcher does, that, despite the increased use of analytics, isn’t going to change.
Knapp hitting .114/.205/.143 this year. More Zaidi dumpster diving.
dumpster diving is how the Pirates field their team
The Man-Not quite true.All young players now.For better or worse.
Can’t go wrong with too many catchers. If you can at least be a defensive catcher, you’ll have a job somewhere in the majors or minors.
See Kevin Cash as a prime example. And look where it got him….
Giants need hitting production from every spot in the lineup. They can’t afford any weak spots from 1 thru 9.
They don’t have a big power hitter to count on. They have occasional power.
Giants rank 5th in NL with 111 homeruns. Rank 2nd in runs/game. Whatever they’re doing with the lineup, it’s working.
I have to hand it to Knapp. He gets a job and then released and gets another job repeat, repeat, etc. Switch hitting catchers will always be in demand.
batting both left and right only matters if the pitch results in a hit
Knapp is unable to hit from either side
What’s the record for being employed by the most MLB organizations in a year?
Just goes to show how there are way too many baseball teams
Joke is on the Giants. Knapp has no stick, doesn’t frame pitches well and can’t throw anyone out. Nice pick up.
I wonder if Giants will go after Murphy of the A’s if Bart does not show more improvement. I know Murphy ain’t hitting all that well either but he has legit power.
Bart’s got plenty of power. He’s just striking out at a ridiculous clip. But his defense is there. He doesn’t need to do too much more than break the Mendoza line to have value. But if that’s all he can do, his future is as a backup, which would be a shame.
Scott is right. Murphy may have power, but Bart has just as much, if not more power than Murphy. In the minors their SLG was Murphy .456, and Bart .508. In college it was Murphy .465, and Bart .544.
But the main reason the Giants like, and aren’t giving up on Bart, is they love his work behind the plate. The Giants don’t need Murphy, and I doubt they want him. Not that Murphy isn’t a good player, but he’ll be expensive to acquire, justifiably so, and why spend that when they’re sticking with Bart, and also have Patrick Bailey?
Datashark — I think with Bailey and Genoves likely to take over if Joey can’t measure up at the plate, the Giants aren’t likely to commit to someone like Murphy.
Knapp= nothing burger.
Giants and Mariners continue to share the cream of the crop