SAN FRANCISCO -- As a group of former Giants players, coaches and executives started to give speeches honoring Buster Posey on Saturday afternoon, Joey Bart emerged from the home dugout and walked down the left field line with bullpen coach Craig Albernaz.
The two stayed out of the spotlight as they cut through left field and headed to the bullpen, where they would help Logan Webb warm up.
The future belongs to Bart, but the day was about Posey, whose surprise retirement paved the way for Bart to take over as the starting catcher four years after he was taken with the second overall pick in the 2018 MLB Draft. After the ceremony, Posey said he's keeping an eye on this year's team and identified what has stood out the most about Bart.
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"I think the biggest takeaway for me is that he's been poised, and that's carried over behind the plate," Posey said. "I feel like he's done some good work with the pitchers behind the plate and it seems like he's gaining their trust. He started off hot, had a little rough patch with the bat, but again I'm not seeing the body language that you might have seen a couple of years ago. So I think that bodes well for him going forward."
Bart has a .164/.313/.345 slash line with three homers and 30 strikeouts in 55 at-bats, but he has not taken any disappointment behind the plate. Manager Gabe Kapler and Giants pitchers have talked repeatedly about how prepared Bart is and how steady he has been defensively and in running a game, and the advanced metrics back that up.
Bart is third among MLB catchers in Baseball Prospectus' Fielding Runs Above Average and currently leads in Baseball Savant's metric to track pitch framing.
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Posey said he has watched his former teammates often, although he's also pretty busy attending other games. Before Saturday's game, he caught ceremonial first pitches from his 10-year-old twins Addi and Lee, both of whom are being coached by their father.
"Little League games and softball games take precedence over these right now," Posey said. "But yeah, I'm watching as much as I can."