SAN FRANCISCO — For all the defensive value he creates behind the plate, Giants catcher Patrick Bailey has been a consistent dead weight with the bat. And the Giants were being dragged down by the lowest-scoring lineup in the major leagues.
So, Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey traded that dead weight for a Tugboat on Saturday, along with a significant leg up in a midseason draft that is setting up for a special haul.
The Giants agreed to trade Bailey to the Cleveland Guardians for Triple-A left-hander Matt “Tugboat” Wilkinson and the No. 29 pick in this year’s draft, the teams announced.
For the second consecutive year, Posey pulled off a stunning trade at an early juncture of the season when the only transactions tend to be waiver churn. Last year, he took on more than $250 million while acquiring Rafael Devers from the Boston Red Sox for four players. This time, he dealt the National League’s defending two-time Gold Glove Award winner — an award that Posey took home himself during his playing career — as both teams sought to overhaul their personnel behind the plate.
Cleveland wasn’t getting any offense out of the position, either, as Bo Naylor (.143, two home runs) got off to an abysmal start at the plate. The Guardians optioned Naylor to the minor leagues, the team announced. They’ll receive a hefty defensive upgrade with Bailey, whose pitch framing metrics lap the field at his position and continue to provide measurable value (a league-best 5 catcher framing runs) this season, even with the implementation of the Automatic Ball-Strike Challenge System (ABS).
The Guardians are known to prioritize defense behind the plate, and club officials had a longstanding interest in Bailey. They attempted to trade for him several times over the years, but he wasn’t available. They received a different answer when they opened dialogue with the Giants over the past week and the deal was finalized during the Giants’ 5-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates Friday night — a game that Bailey entered as a defensive replacement and helped reliever Caleb Kilian navigate through a rocky ninth inning.
Bailey, a switch hitter, had a flair for the dramatic at the plate. His three-run home run on April 22 interrupted a scoreless game in the seventh inning and led to a win over the Los Angeles Dodgers, bringing back memories of last year’s historic two-fer when he became the first player in major-league history to end games with a grand slam and an inside-the-park home run in the same season.
But those were histrionic hiccups in an overall body of work that wasn’t getting any better. Bailey’s homer against the Dodgers was his only extra-base hit of the season.
He was batting .146 with a .396 OPS. There have been rumblings for years that Posey had reservations about elements of Bailey’s game. The Giants’ top baseball official met with Bailey before the start of spring training last year and challenged him to go beyond resting on his framing metrics.
“Honestly, my focus in that conversation was, ‘Patty, first and foremost, your responsibility is to lead the staff,’” Posey told The Athletic in February 2025. “‘And that’s not just framing metrics or how many runners you’re throwing out. It’s truly to lead the staff.’ That’s where I want his focus to be.”
Perhaps an inflection point was an April 30 doubleheader at Philadelphia when Bailey inexplicably called for nine consecutive two-seam fastballs from right-hander Ryan Walker to Bryson Stott, the last of which resulted in a tying triple in a Game 1 loss, then inexplicably called for seven consecutive splitters from right-hander Keaton Winn to Kyle Schwarber, the last of which resulted in a tying double in a Game 2 loss.
Bailey already appeared to have a tenuous hold on his position after the Giants called up versatile, contact-hitting catcher Jesus Rodriguez from Triple-A Sacramento on Monday. Daniel Susac, the Rule 5 draftee who provided an offensive spark before a bout with neuritis in his right elbow sent him to the injured list, is expected to rejoin the roster within a week. Susac hit two home runs in the first game of his rehab assignment Thursday night at Sacramento.
The Giants also like backup catcher Eric Haase, who could retain his place on the roster after Susac returns — allowing them to use Rodriguez’s versatility (he can play second base and outfield) to augment a bench that has been woefully underused to this point by rookie manager Tony Vitello.
Giants officials also undoubtedly looked ahead to this offseason, when Bailey will be eligible for salary arbitration for the first time and his two Gold Gloves would make for an interesting case. Did they really want to commit $5 million or more to a player who appears more and more like a total liability with the bat?
Instead, the Giants transformed a problem into two potential assets. Wilkinson is a 6-foot-1, 250-pound left-hander from British Columbia who dominated after the Guardians took him in the 10th round of the 2023 draft out of Central Arizona Junior College. The 23-year-old is 1-2 with a 1.59 ERA in six starts with Double-A Akron. In 2024, his breakout season, he was 8-6 with a 1.90 ERA and 174 strikeouts in 118 2/3 innings split between High A and Low A.
Wilkinson features an above-average spin rate and command of a low-90s fastball and is a reliable strike thrower with both his changeup and slider. He’ll provide immediate upper-level pitching depth and, if the Giants choose to move him to relief, an eventual alternative to struggling left-hander Ryan Borucki.
The trade’s biggest impact for the Giants might turn out to be the No. 29 pick, which the Guardians were allowed to trade because it was a competitive-balance selection. The Giants will add the pick’s $3.27 million value to a pool that already received a jolt when they lucked into the No. 4 choice by way of the draft lottery. The Giants’ total pool of $17.35 million is the fourth highest, giving them plenty of options when players start coming off the board in July.
Among the possible scenarios: Take one of the draft’s top talents with the fourth pick — UC Santa Barbara right-hander Jackson Flora or Georgia Tech catcher Vahn Lackey — and still have enough bonus money to scoop up a player like University of Alabama shortstop Justin Lebron, who was viewed as a top-10 talent but could slide because of contact issues in his junior year.
