SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco Giants were already faced with the daunting reality of finishing this season with a skeleton crew.
Breaking more bones won’t make it any easier.
Rookie catcher Daniel Susac was diagnosed with a fractured left patella on Monday, an injury that almost certainly ends his season and leaves the Giants paper-thin at yet another critical position.
Susac, 25, hit a foul tip that struck his left knee in the fifth inning of Sunday’s 3-1, 10-inning loss to the Detroit Tigers. He finished the at-bat by striking out and then caught Logan Webb for two more innings before Drew Cavanaugh pinch hit for him. Susac underwent X-rays that were inconclusive, but he remained in considerable pain, so the team sent him for an MRI exam, which revealed the fracture.
It’s the third time Susac was placed on the IL this season. He also missed time because of right elbow neuritis and a lower back strain. When healthy, he showed enough flashes to make the Giants believe he can be a frontline catcher next season. He ranks third among major league catchers with plus-6 framing runs, which is no small achievement since the Giants cleared the position for him by trading the league’s foremost framing catcher, two-time Gold Glove winner Patrick Bailey, to the Cleveland Guardians in May.
It was a bold move to trade a Gold Glove winner and clear the way for a catcher whom the Giants acquired via the Rule 5 draft (trading for him after the Minnesota Twins claimed him from the Athletics) in December.
Susac also demonstrated potential with the bat, although the injury absences made it tough to get in a rhythm at the plate. He hit .243/.289/.375 with three home runs and two stolen bases.
The Giants were in the process of getting a second catcher to San Francisco in time for Monday’s series opener against the Houston Astros. Adrián Sugastey is the top catcher at Triple-A Sacramento, or the team could look to the waiver wire. Utility player Jesus Rodríguez, who can catch in addition to playing infield and outfield, is on the IL with an inflamed elbow and not close to returning, Giants manager Tony Vitello said.
As expected, the Giants also will be without third baseman Matt Chapman for the rest of the season. Chapman will undergo season-ending surgery to address a sports hernia on Tuesday in Philadelphia. The Chapman news has been anticipated for more than a week.
Vitello attempted to put a positive spin on Susac’s injury, saying that the young catcher could use the time away to work on increasing his upper body strength.
“Always with any young players, or any player, an injury, you always want to look for the positive,” Vitello said. “I think there’s a pretty good space for him to work upper body-wise and just add the strength needed. Yesterday was a freak injury, but add the strength needed to be durable back there because he’s pretty dang good, and I think we could all see him catching a bulk amount of innings next year, just in the future.”
That’s one way to look at it. But it’s hard to imagine that getting a head start on offseason workouts is more valuable to Susac than the developmental experience of catching in the big leagues for six more weeks. Susac was in so much pain he had to be carted into the stadium Monday.
The only potential positive spin? The timing of the injury could’ve been even worse.
That’s because Susac needed to spend 90 days on the active roster this season or he would have been subjected to the same Rule 5 provisions next year, meaning that the Giants wouldn’t be able to send him down without offering him back to the A’s for half the $100,000 claiming price. Because Susac spent 94 days on the active roster, he won’t have Rule 5 strings attached next season.
While the Giants are likely to pursue catching help this winter, Vitello was comfortable saying that Susac made a solid impression.
“He went through a period where he was almost kind of playing it safe to a fault at the plate, just trying to make sure he was doing what he needed to do to remain here and have some level of success,” Vitello said. “But he’s capable of going out there and cutting loose on the offensive end, and also, whatever version of that is on the defensive end, too. Just take control of the game. Started to see a few more additive things with body language or going out on his own. I think it was a huge growth here. Obviously you want him to develop, but if you just took him as he is now, he’s a pretty damn good catcher.”
