Former Guardians prospect's performance with Giants puts pressure on Patrick Bailey

Earlier this month, the Guardians kicked off the trade season by dealing pitching prospect Matt ‘Tugboat’ Wilkinson and the No. 29 pick in the upcoming MLB draft to the San Francisco Giants in exchange for catcher Patrick Bailey. 

While Bailey’s provided the Guardians with his signature strong defense, he’s hit just .120 in nine games, which was always the biggest knock against him in San Francisco.

He’s still an important and talented player, but any conversation about his impact requires a bit of nuance because of that lack of offense. 

Those conversations are going to require a bit more nuance now after Wilkinson turned in seven shutout innings his last time out for Double-A Richmond. While that would be bad enough as is, it came against his former team in the Akron RubberDucks. 

Ouch.

Matt Wilkinson just pitched a gem against the Guardians’ Double-A affiliate 

That performance is part of another strong season for Wilkinson, who has a 1.87 ERA with 49 strikeouts and just 13 walks in 43 1/3 innings. He’s posted a 2.40 ERA in 15 innings for Richmond since being acquired by San Francisco. 

While it stings to see Wilkinson shine elsewhere, the Guardians’ decision to trade him made sense given their ability to build strong starting pitching with their pitching factory. For most teams, a pitcher like Wilkinson would be a prized prospect. But in Cleveland, he was part of an embarrassment of riches. 

So instead of letting him toil in the minors without a clear path toward playing time, the Guardians elected to deal from a position of depth to acquire Bailey, who is one of the best defensive catchers in baseball. 

And that trade could end up being the big step needed for him to make his MLB debut before the season is over. Not only is WIlkinson setting the minors on fire, but the Giants are also 12 games under .500 and falling behind in the postseason race. 

That suboptimal record could lead to the Giants being sellers at the deadline, which could open up a roster spot for Wilkinson at some point. 

Regardless of how Wilkinson does whenever that call up comes, it’s important to remember that Bailey’s value can’t always be easy to see. His best asset is his defense and game-calling, which can sometimes be tough to quantify. 

Now, does Wilkinson pitching well in Richmond put more pressure on Bailey to live up to the trade? 100%. But he still has three more years of team control left, so he’ll have plenty of chances to do so. 

He also is set to form a catching tandem with the hard-hitting Cooper Ingle after this season, which should remove some of the pressure off him compared to his current situation where he’s working with another light-hitting catcher in Austin Hedges.

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