{"id":678253,"date":"2026-04-18T09:22:30","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T09:22:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/678253\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T09:22:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T09:22:30","slug":"how-sf-giants-could-divvy-up-patrick-bailey-daniel-susacs-playing-time-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/678253\/","title":{"rendered":"How SF Giants could divvy up Patrick Bailey, Daniel Susac’s playing time"},"content":{"rendered":"

CINCINNATI \u2014 With two-time Gold Glover Patrick Bailey<\/a> still mired in a brutal slump, Giants manager Tony Vitello suggested before Thursday\u2019s drama-filled 3-0 win<\/a> over the Reds that rookie Daniel Susac<\/a> could be getting more time behind the plate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think involving (Susac) as much as possible, see if we get into an every other day situation or whatever that might be,\u201d Vitello said.<\/p>\n

The overwhelming majority of Bailey\u2019s value will derive from his glove, not his bat. He led all defenders, regardless of position, in Fielding Run Value over the last three seasons, and he\u2019s still been an elite framer even with the introduction of the automated ball-strike system (ABS). Still, Bailey\u2019s tremendous defensive value can\u2019t overshadow the fact that he\u2019s been one of the worst hitters in the majors to start the season.<\/p>\n

Bailey is hitting .128 with no extra-base hits over 50 plate appearances after grounding into a double play and striking out twice on Thursday. If Bailey had enough at-bats to qualify, his .308 OPS would rank last in the majors.<\/p>\n

\u201cI need to play better,\u201d Bailey said. \u201cI need to perform better at the plate. That\u2019s about as simple as it gets. If my name\u2019s in the lineup, I\u2019ll do everything I can to help the team win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bailey\u2019s cold start wouldn\u2019t be as much of an issue if San Francisco\u2019s offense was hot, but through 19 games, the Giants rank last in the majors in runs scored (58), home runs (9) and walks (38), as well as 27th in OPS (.633).<\/p>\n

\"SanSan Francisco Giants catcher Patrick Bailey (14) breaks his bat in the third inning of their game at Oracle Park in San Francisco, Calif., on Friday, April 3, 2026. (Jose Carlos Fajardo\/Bay Area News Group)<\/p>\n

Susac, a Rule 5 Draft pick, won\u2019t possibly sustain his 1.338 OPS, but he\u2019s 9-for-14 in his four starts and the Giants need as much offense as they can muster. On Wednesday, Susac made his first start of the season against a right-handed pitcher, proceeding to collect two more hits and two more RBIs.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of it\u2019s just offseason changes,\u201d Susac said. \u201cJust keep working on it and keeping that the same every single day. It starts to get kind of redundant doing it every day, but it obviously helps when you see results. But just keeping the same process every day and keep attacking it day by day.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

When Vitello was asked on Wednesday about Susac producing against a right-handed pitcher, the rookie manager may have tipped his hand regarding the dynamic between Bailey and Susac:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not going to work out very often if you have two or three spots in the lineup where you don\u2019t get anything out of it,\u201d Vitello said. \u201cIt could even be a 12-pitch strikeout, as foolish as that sounds, but at least you\u2019re wearing down the pitcher or you move a runner or something like that. You could go 0-for-4, but you can\u2019t have a spot in the order where you don\u2019t get anything out of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the one thing about (Susac\u2019s) at-bats is there always seems to be at least a good approach, and more times than not, there\u2019s something of value.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even on days when Susac doesn\u2019t start, Vitello could find spots to deploy the rookie as a pinch hitter. Susac pinch-hit for Bailey on Tuesday with two outs in the ninth inning and the Giants trailing by one run, coming several feet short of hitting a game-tying homer.<\/p>\n

Using Susac as a bat off the bench would be an easier proposition if the Giants recall Jesus Rodriguez, who\u2019s capable of playing second base and left field in addition to catching.<\/p>\n

The Washington Nationals are currently slated to start three right-handed pitchers against the Giants this weekend (Zack Littell, Cade Cavalli, Miles Mikolas), so it will be worth monitoring where Vitello settles on Susac\u2019s start.<\/p>\n

Bailey started Thursday\u2019s day game following Wednesday\u2019s night game, and he should be the starter on Friday night to catch Logan Webb. Susac has caught three of Robbie Ray\u2019s four starts this season, and the left-hander\u2019s next start is slated for Sunday\u2019s series finale.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CINCINNATI \u2014 With two-time Gold Glover Patrick Bailey still mired in a brutal slump, Giants manager Tony Vitello…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":669886,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2408],"tags":[5,2178,162,4,378,66,4343,4340,4344,4341,4342,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-678253","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco-giants","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-giants","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-san-francisco","13":"tag-san-francisco-giants","14":"tag-sanfrancisco","15":"tag-sanfranciscogiants","16":"tag-sf","17":"tag-sf-giants","18":"tag-sfgiants","19":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116424982095968465","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=678253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/669886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=678253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=678253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=678253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}