Bailey working hard to end second-half slump

This story was excerpted from Maria Guardado’s Giants Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Patrick Bailey’s second half has played out eerily similar to last year.

The Giants’ young catcher opened the season by batting .283 with a .784 OPS and seven home runs over his first 69 games, but he’s slumped badly since the All-Star break, hitting only .131 with a .320 OPS and no homers over 35 games.

Bailey also experienced a steep offensive drop-off as a rookie in 2023, when his batting average fell from .322 on June 30 to .233 at the end of the season, but he’s been making adjustments to his pregame routine to try to avoid fading at the plate in September. The 25-year-old switch-hitter showed signs that he’s trending in the right direction on Thursday, when he drove in each of the Giants’ three runs in a 3-2 walk-off win over the D-backs at Oracle Park.

“I’ve been working hard,” Bailey said afterward. “I’ve been getting my swings in and trying to kind of refine my work, make it a little bit more difficult and challenging. Not just trying to feel good but really accomplish something and try to get better before the game. When the game happens, just go out and try to stick to your approach and hit something hard. I’ve changed my work a little bit. Just trying to learn. This is my first full year in the big leagues. I had something happen like this last year. Just trying to learn to go forward and try to shorten up slumps as much as you can.”

Fatigue played a major role in Bailey’s decline last year, as he ended up appearing in 125 games between the Majors and the Minors, a significant jump from his previous career high of 83 games, which he set with High-A Eugene in 2022. He focused on regaining his strength and adding weight over the offseason. So he doesn’t feel like he’s wearing down as much this year.

“It’s different,” Bailey said. “Obviously everybody is a little more tired at the end of the year, going through nicks and bruises and whatnot. But I feel like I’ve done a much better job this year of keeping my strength, keeping my weight on. It’s kind of another thing that I felt like I improved last year to this year. I feel like I’m in a much better spot. I probably caught more this year than last year as well.”

Despite his second-half struggles, Bailey remains one of the Giants’ most important players due to his elite defense behind the plate. He leads the Majors in Fielding Run Value (21) and Catcher Framing Runs (15), which should make him a frontrunner to capture his first career Gold Glove Award this year.

“For him to be as young as he is in his career, it’s really impressive how good he is and how much he believes in himself,” left-hander Blake Snell said recently. “He’s going to be really good for a long time.”

Bailey knows he’ll have to find a way to be more consistent from an offensive standpoint, but some of the under-the-hood numbers show that he’s still making strides with the bat. He’s posted an average exit velocity of 91.2 mph this year, up from 88.7 mph in 2023, and his expected batting average (.256) and expected slugging percentage (.399) are both higher than his surface numbers, which have him hitting .230 with a .335 slugging percentage in 2024.

“I’m very encouraged with the progress I’ve made from last year to this year,” Bailey said. “The numbers might not suggest that, but I think the expected numbers and the profiles are better. I think I had 28 games in Double-A and Triple-A, so I’m kind of having to continue to adjust and get better at the big league level against big league pitching. Obviously, I’m happy about that, but it’s challenging.”