Pirates All 40: Trade Turns Joey Bart’s Career Around

This is one in a series of stories breaking down members of the Pittsburgh Pirates’ 40-man roster.

Joey Bart was one of the most pleasant surprises of the 2024 season for the Pittsburgh Pirates. And he could be a major part of the team in 2025.

The Pirates acquired the one-time top catching prospect from San Francisco on April 2 for minor-league pitcher Austin Strickland. The Giants had designated Bart for assignment two days earlier.

Bart went on to have a fine season offensively as he hit .265/.337/.462 with 13 home runs in 80 games. The five-year veteran set career highs in homers, hits (67), runs (38), doubles (11) and RBIs (45).
The right-handed hitting Bart also mashed against left-handed pitching, going 22 for 66 (.333) with five homers, 11 RBIs, a .405 on-base percentage and a .966 OPS.

It all represented quite a change from his time with the Giants when Bart was considered a bust after being the second overall pick in the 2018 amateur draft from Georgia Tech. In 162 games with San Francisco, he had a .219/.288/.335 slash line and 11 homers.

Bart homered in his first at-bat with the Pirates on April 6, connecting off the Baltimore Orioles’ Tyler Wells. Bart also became the fourth Pirates player to have multiple RBIs in his first two games with the franchise, joining Mack Hillis (1928), Dick Stuart (1958) and Lastings Milledge (2009).

Bart was just the second catcher in Pirates’ history to have two grand slams in a season when he took the Giants’ Mason Black deep on May 23 at PNC Park and homered off the Brewers’ Bryse Wilson on July 9 at Milwaukee. Tony Pena accomplished the feat in 1984.

By going 8 for 23 (.364) in his final six games, Bart finished the season strong after hitting just .171 (6 of 35) in his first 11 games of September.

Bart’s two drawbacks last season were defense and durability.

While Bart threw out 18.3% (15 of 67) of opposing base stealers – not much lower than the MLB average of 20.3% — he had minus 4 defensive runs saved. Bart was also in just the 12th percentile of big-league catchers with minus -5 blocks above average while his 2.00 pop time was in the 20th percentile.

Bart also spent two stints on the injured list. A sprained left thumb kept him out from May 27-June 29, and a left hamstring strain kept him out from Aug. 26-Sept. 5.

The Pirates have multiple options behind the plate. The 28-year-old Bart is one of four catchers on the 40-man roster along with Endy Rodriguez, Henry Davis and Jason Delay.

The depth chart will be sorted out during spring training, but Bart figures to make the opening-day roster based on last season’s performance and being out of minor-league options.