{"id":69711,"date":"2024-04-03T10:00:40","date_gmt":"2024-04-03T14:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=69711"},"modified":"2024-04-02T22:32:00","modified_gmt":"2024-04-03T02:32:00","slug":"pirates-second-overall-pick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/04\/03\/pirates-second-overall-pick\/","title":{"rendered":"Pittsburgh Pirates Trade For Former Second Overall Pick"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bartjo01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Joey Bart<\/a> has not lived up to the hype after the San Francisco Giants selected him with the second overall pick in the 2018 MLB Draft. While it&#8217;s always tough to give up on big prospects, the Giants did just that when they designated Bart for assignment on March 31. Just a few days later, his tenure in San Francisco is officially over, as the Pittsburgh Pirates acquired Bart on Tuesday night in exchange for minor league pitcher <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=strick000aus&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-04-02_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Austin Strickland<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">We have acquired C Joey Bart from the Giants in exchange for minor league RHP Austin Strickland. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/fk1Bqn2SwR\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/fk1Bqn2SwR<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Pirates\/status\/1775335466222432743?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 3, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Pittsburgh Pirates Trade For Former Second Overall Pick<\/h2>\n<p>The Giants drafted Bart as a bat-first catcher out of a college in Georgia. However, the 27-year-old failed to adapt to major league pitching, evident by a robust 35.4 percent strikeout rate. It didn&#8217;t help that another former first-round pick, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bailepa01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-02-21_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Patrick Bailey<\/a>, established himself as one of the better rookies in the league last season.<\/p>\n<p>The writing on the wall quickly became clear regarding Bart&#8217;s future in San Francisco. The fact that Bart made the Giants Opening Day roster represented a slight surprise due to his lack of clear role. With Bailey and offseason acquisition <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=murphto04,murphto02&amp;search=Tom+Murphy&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-02-21_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tom Murphy<\/a> at catcher, plus big free agent acquisition <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/solerjo01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jorge Soler<\/a> at DH, many expected the Giants to move on from Bart <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/02\/21\/joey-bart-landing-spots\/\" target=\"_self\">at some point in the spring<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Giants designate Joey Bart, once Buster Posey\u2019s heir, for assignment; Patrick Bailey says whoever get him is getting a good one. \u201cYou look back there and see somebody stable and rock solid. I think he&#39;s shown nothing but maturity through it all.&quot; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/A1cL512dri\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/A1cL512dri<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Susan Slusser (@susanslusser) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/susanslusser\/status\/1774500356304863326?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 31, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Tuesday&#8217;s trade indicates Bart&#8217;s value around the league. A trade, rather than a straight waiver claim, shows that Bart received significant interest from teams around the league. That&#8217;s no surprise, as many clubs would want a crack at unlocking Bart&#8217;s big potential, especially at a cheap acquisition cost.<\/p>\n<p>For now, the Pirates will be the first team to try rejuvenating Bart&#8217;s career.<\/p>\n<h3>Bart&#8217;s Fit on the Pirates Roster<\/h3>\n<p>In his career, Bart has mainly played catcher and DH. However,\u00a0the Pirates currently have former first overall pick <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/d\/davishe01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Henry Davis<\/a> at catcher and franchise icon <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/mccutan01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Andrew McCutchen<\/a> at DH. Bart does not have any minor league options remaining, meaning the Pirates must keep him on the active roster to avoid exposing him to the rest of the league.<\/p>\n<p>With Bart not regarded as a good defender behind the dish, Pittsburgh might explore Bart at first base. The squad currently is splitting first base reps between free agent signee and lefty slugger <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/t\/tellero01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rowdy Tellez<\/a> and righty <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/j\/joeco01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Connor Joe<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s possible that the Pirates use Joe&#8217;s defensive flexibility and play him in the outfield more, then use Bart as the right-hand platoon option at first. Additionally, Davis played a fair amount in right field last season and could potentially see more time there, thus opening some catching duties for Bart.<\/p>\n<p>But no matter where he plays, the Pirates acquired Bart for his bat. For him to have a major league career, he will need to make necessary adjustments and improve offensively. At that point, teams will gladly figure out his defensive position later.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credits: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Joey Bart has not lived up to the hype after the San Francisco Giants selected him with the second overall pick in the 2018 MLB Draft. While it&#8217;s always tough to give up on big prospects, the Giants did just that when they designated Bart for assignment on March 31. Just a few days later, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4683,"featured_media":69730,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26,2,1071,35,31],"tags":[5766],"class_list":["post-69711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pirates","category-featured","category-mlb","category-news","category-giants","tag-joey-bart"],"modified_by":"Evan Mazza, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4683"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}