Why Bart Was Brought To Arizona But Not Activated By Giants originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
PHOENIX — As expected, Brandon Crawford was activated on Tuesday by the Giants at Chase Field. As expected, Joey Bart was at the clubhouse.
But the rest of the moves provided some surprises and put the Giants in a potentially precarious position.
The Giants activated Crawford and lefthander Jose Alvarez and optional infielder Donovan Walton to Triple-A. An MRI revealed that Curt Casali has a grade 2 oblique trunk which will probably keep him out for at least a month, but Bart is on the taxi crew for now, not active.
That means the back-catcher on Tuesday will be Yermin Mercedes, who is not considered a big league catcher by most reviewers and also starts at DH. With Thairo Estrada still on the COVID IL, the backup shortstops are…Evan Longoria and Wilmer Flores.
Teams generally don’t go into games thinking that their catcher or shortstop will get hurt, but it does happen, and there’s a strange imbalance on the roster right now. However, for Tuesday’s game, Gabe Kapler was not worried. He said Bart will be activated soon.
“There’s no reason to be out of shape over something that happens very rarely,” Kapler said of the roster imbalance. “Did it happen to Curt yesterday? Sure. Could it happen today? Absolutely. But again, it’s one of those things that’s unlikely and you plan and prepare, but you don’t overindex, if that makes sense.”
Crawford is one of the iron men of the game and said he is feeling well physically after 10 days in the IL getting his knee and other ailments healed. Bart was off the roster for other reasons and spent several days adjusting the swing before a seven-game run in Triple-A followed.
Kapler said there were slight signs of progress in Triple-A, but admitted that in a perfect world the Giants would have given him more time there.
That’s not possible after Casali strains his slant Monday. He said it was his first oblique strain and called it “gut-wrenching.” Casali is flying back to San Francisco to recover from an injury that will likely sideline him until August.
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At some point in this journey, the Giants hope to return to a more normal alignment. Estrada still has a sore throat, but will return to the infield once that is gone. Bart will be joining Wynns soon as an option at catcher, possibly Wednesday.
“There’s a good chance he’ll be activated for us in the coming days,” Kapler said. “(This) was just a good chance, as Austin would take today’s game anyway to have Yermin in the lineup again at DH and see where we are after the game.”