Once the Giants selected catcher Patrick Bailey with the No. 13 pick in the 2020 MLB Draft, fans naturally questioned how he would fit two years after San Francisco took Joey Bart with the second pick in the draft. But I had a different question.
Where does Bailey fit among Giants top prospects?
The Giants' top four has seemed set in stone since last year's draft. Wherever you look, Marco Luciano, Joey Bart, Heliot Ramos and Hunter Bishop round out the Giants' future. It gets a little questionable after that.
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Bailey, Alexander Canario, Seth Corry and Luis Toribio are seen as the Giants' best prospects behind Bishop. By my guess, I had Bailey sitting somewhere between No. 5 and No. 7. Baseball America released their latest top 30 Giants prospects and they placed the catcher smack dab in the middle at No. 6.
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By Baseball America's rankings, Bailey is behind Canario but ahead of Toribio (No. 7) and Corry (No. 8).
"The Giants’ first-rounder from the 2020 draft, Bailey brings a powerful, switch-hitting profile along with stellar defense behind the plate," Baseball America's Josh Norris wrote. "Defensively, he’s ahead of where Joey Bart was when he was drafted."
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That last part is where things get interesting. The Giants have emphasized that while they believe Bart is advanced as a catcher, they want him to learn another position. Bailey seems more likely to stick behind the dish.
Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi has said you can never have too much catching, and that certainly is true. The Giants have learned firsthand that stark reality with Buster Posey opting out of the 2020 season to be with his family and twins he and his wife recently adopted. If they can get Bailey and Bart in the same lineup in the near future, that's a win-win.
[RELATED: Top prospect Luciano excites Giants for his defense, too]
Three other Giants draft picks made the top 30. Left-hander Kyle Harrison, who was a third-round pick, comes in at No. 15, lefty Nick Swiney, taken No. 67 overall with the Madison Bumgarner compensation pick is No. 22 and third baseman/right-handed pitcher Casey Schmitt, a second-round pick, is No. 25.
Baseball America says "there really aren’t many weaknesses in this system," and this year's draft class clearly helps make that true.