SAN FRANCISCO Feeling Curt Casali needed a day off after he caught the night before, the Giants on Saturday recalled Joey Bart from Triple-A Sacramento and inserted him into their lineup for their game with the Washington Nationals at Oracle Park.

Saturdays appearance for Bart will mark his first full Major League game since Sept. 27 of last year when he was in the lineup for San Franciscos regular-season finale.

To make room on the roster, the Giants optioned right-hander Logan Webb to Sacramento. Webb pitched three scoreless innings Friday in the Giants 5-3 win over the Nationals.

Bart was widely considered the Giants top prospect in 2020 but fizzled in his first taste of the big leagues, hitting .233 with a .609 OPS in 33 games. Bart had seven extra-base hits, including five doubles, but also struck out 41 times.

Theres still some swing and miss in there with Joey that may be a concern for him in the short term, but its something that we believe that he can continue to work on and improve upon going forward, Kapler said. There are no concerns about his ability to drive the baseball.

Bart will hit seventh in the order as hell catch Anthony DeSclafani, who is looking to win for the sixth time in his last seven starts.

Theres enough aptitude in there where some of the holes that he had last year are starting to get smaller, and I think hes a better hitter now than he was when we had him in the summer last year, Kapler said. I think hes a better all-around player, and those improvements speak to the type of baseball player that he can be for us, which is kind of an excellent middle-of-the-order, regular bat if he continues to improve.

Bart said hes a better player now for having gone through for the somewhat humbling experience last year. For Sacramento this season, Bart, 24, is hitting .338 with a .981 OPS in 150 plate appearances. He also has eight home runs and 33 RBI. Hes also shown improvement as a catcher

I feel like Ive improved offensively and defensively, Bart said. Im just trying to become a more complete player, swing at better pitches and try to frame the ball better on the defensive side.

Kapler, the Dodgers former farm director, said a players progress from one level to the next isnt always simple.

Sometimes immediate success isnt sustainable, and sometimes whats best for a player is to be not just humbled, but kind of forced into making some adjustments, Kapler said. With Joey, I think he was, to some degree, and I think hes made a lot of those adjustments and has a chance now to show us that those are going to show up at the major league level, at least for now.

I dont think player development is linear by any stretch, I dont think its predictable, and I think everybody develops at their own pace.

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What Gabe Kapler said about Joey Barts progress from last season - Santa Cruz Sentinel