Patrick Bailey, left, and Daniel Susac of the San Francisco Giants look on during batting practice prior to the game between the New York Yankees and the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park on Wednesday, March 25, 2026, in San Francisco.

The San Francisco Giants haven’t even completed three weeks of their six-month season, but there’s already a dilemma brewing at one of the team’s most important positions.

Patrick Bailey has been the Giants’ primary catcher for a few years now and is considered a renowned defender, having won the last two National League Gold Glove Awards for catcher. The former first-round pick also has consistently received a vote of confidence from Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey — no small thing given Posey is the standard that all Giants catchers will forever be judged against.

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While Bailey’s work behind the plate is not questioned, the switch-hitter has gone through some rather turbulent times with the bat in his hands. Entering 2026, Bailey had batted .230 in his three MLB seasons and produced some highlight moments at the plate. In each season, Bailey had a month or two where he caught fire and hit well above his career average, but he also had multiple months of struggles where he batted below that number, too. 

This year, the streaky hitter has come out of the gates ice-cold, with just six hits — all singles — and three walks in 44 plate appearances. Out of the 250 hitters who had at least 40 plate appearances this season entering Sunday, Bailey’s .351 OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage) ranks 247th. (It also doesn’t help that one of the three players worse than Bailey is his Giants teammate Harrison Bader, with a .338 OPS.) It’s gotten so bad that Giants beat reporter John Shea of the San Francisco Standard wrote a story contemplating whether Bailey should give up switch-hitting to focus on his left-handed swing only, even though Bailey has steadfastly said he won’t do that.

For the past few years, the Giants haven’t seemed to find a backup to really challenge Bailey’s status as a starter. That’s changed this spring, thanks to the blistering start from Daniel Susac, whom the Giants traded for in the offseason. As a Rule 5 draft pick, Susac has to stay on the Giants’ MLB roster all season long or else be offered back to his original team, the A’s.

The younger brother of a former Giants backup catcher, Susac broke a franchise record by getting a hit in each of his first five career at-bats. When that streak ended, the rookie followed up in his next at-bat with an RBI triple — the only extra-base hit from a Giants catcher so far this season.

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Susac bats right-handed and has been getting his starts when the Giants face left-handed pitchers, so he has only started three of the Giants’ 16 games so far. But he already has more hits (seven) than Bailey does this season. And he even had a standout defensive play in his most recent start Sunday, throwing out a runner trying to steal second from his knees.

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As the Giants have otherwise limped to a 6-10 record so far, Susac is tied for second on the roster with 0.5 WAR (wins above replacement) — even though he’s only got 12 plate appearances and played just 30 of 141 defensive innings. That standout effort on a struggling team has led many fans, sports radio hosts and even Giants broadcasters to call for more playing time for Susac at the expense of Bailey, who has a negative WAR so far (-0.4). 

That might be trickier than anticipated. The Giants will likely face right-handers in every game this week — three in Cincinnati and three in Washington. When they return home next week, the Giants will surely face more right-handers given both the Dodgers and Marlins have all-righty rotations. Susac is certain to get a start or two against right-handed pitchers, if only to give Bailey a break.

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For now, Bailey is starting Tuesday’s game and is still getting support from manager Tony Vitello as the main starter. Still, the calls are already quite loud for the Giants to reconsider. If Susac can keep performing anywhere close to the level he currently is — or if Bailey simply can’t figure things out at the plate — then the pressure will only increase.

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