Joey Bart’s time with the big leagues is over for the foreseeable future. The Giants optioned their young catcher back to Triple-A after trading for Phillies catcher Austin Wynns.
SAN FRANCISCO -- As Logan Webb walked onto the field Wednesday afternoon, a member of the Giants staff looked around to make sure Austin Wynns was nearby. The new catcher was supposed to play catch with Webb to get a better feel for his repertoire before Thursday's series finale, which both are scheduled to start.
Wynns has spent his whole professional career playing for teams thousands of miles away and has a lot to learn in San Francisco, but he also is pretty familiar with the Giants. As he sat in the dugout on his first day, he broke down some of the connections.
Wynns grew up in Poway and went to the same high school as Brett Bochy, and he was a Padres fan when Bruce Bochy was their manager. He has known Giants hitting coach Justin Viele over a decade, and the two played together in the Baltimore Orioles system. Wynns was taken four rounds before the Orioles took Mike Yastrzemski in 2013, and when he made his debut on June 5, 2018 at Citi Field, Alex Cobb was his pitcher.
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It was easy to see, then, why the San Diego-area native said coming back to the West Coast was "a luxury" in the transaction. Wynns was told of the trade Tuesday night as he played a Triple-A game in Omaha.
"I was shocked," he said. "Shocked but happy."
Wynns was added because the Giants want Joey Bart to reset in Triple-A and needed someone to join Curt Casali at the big league level. He has 115 games of big league experience, all with the Orioles, and while he has a career .580 OPS in the big leagues, Wynns had a .365/.504/.500 slash line in 33 Triple-A games this year.
A right-handed hitter, Wynns said he made adjustments in the offseason that have helped his swing and approach. The Giants liked what they saw, particularly the 28 walks to 18 strikeouts.
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"He was obviously having a lot of success in Triple-A with the Phillies," manager Gabe Kapler said. "It's a small number of plate appearances but [he's] walking more than he's striking out. That's a strike-zone dominance thing. Does it mean that it's going to immediately translate to a major league level? It's not likely, but that's a major component of all of this, the strikeout-to-walk ratio.
"That means that you're making good decisions in the batter's box, you're putting the ball in play consistently and you're not likely to be overmatched when you come to this level."
RELATED: What's next for Giants' Bart after demotion to minors
Kapler said Wynns is a "quality game-caller" and "solid" defensively, and he'll get his first chance to prove himself on Thursday. With a day game after a night game, Wynns should debut with Webb, who started with Bart on Opening Day two months ago.
A lot has changed for the Giants since then, but one thing remains the same. They entered the year with questions about how they would make up for the loss of Buster Posey, and those remain. Wynns will team with Casali to try and give the Giants more production out of the spot, and he's thrilled to be getting the opportunity.
"I'm really grateful," he said. "I'm excited to get it on, man."
