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In the midst of a dreary, rainy evening in San Jose, the current center of Giants’ fans future hopes and expectations received an unexpected blow — a literal, unexpected blow.
Joey Bart leaves the game tonight after getting hit by a pitch. Looked to hit him on hand/wrist area. Umpire ruled it a foul ball. It’s a cold, damp night here in San Jose. Bart was in obvious pain.
— Joe Ritzo (@JoeRitzo) April 16, 2019
Giants’ fans — of a prospect-oriented bent — have thus spent the morning obsessively staring at their twitter feeds waiting for the “x-rays were negative” note that would give the all clear. Instead we got this, the All Murky,
Joey Bart left last night’s game after getting hit by a pitch, and I’m told he’ll see a hand specialist today. Giants will have an update later today.
— Alex Pavlovic (@PavlovicNBCS) April 16, 2019
As Alex noted in his report that followed:
The Giants expect to have a further update later Tuesday, but the fact that Bart is seeing a specialist indicates there is some concern about what the test showed
Bart, 22, was off to an excellent full season debut, hitting .270/.341/.541 over his first 10 games in San Jose, with 2 HRs and 3 BBs against 6 Ks. He’s also thrown out or backpicked a rather amazing eight base runners, granting his pitching partners nearly one free out per game.
Since signing as a pro last year, Bart has slugged .581 with 15 HRs. Here’s hoping we’ll be seeing a lot more of this, soon!
Joey Bart 3-run bomb in Stockton #SFGiants pic.twitter.com/XvU7W4eZpy
— Robbie Lewis (@LewisRobbie12) April 9, 2019
[2:50pm UPDATE:]
Joey Bart has a fractured second metacarpal in his left hand after getting hit by a pitch last night. Will be in a cast two weeks then reevaluated. Likely out till the end of May/start of June.
— Andrew Baggarly (@extrabaggs) April 16, 2019
Last year, Evan Longoria hit the injured list with a fractured fifth metacarpal in his left hand and missed just about six weeks of game action. He virtually returned to form, too, which wasn’t great for the Giants last season, but at least he was consistent. That means it’s very possible that if the hand heals properly and there are no setbacks with his rehab that he could very easily reclaim the hearts and minds of Giants fans before season’s end.
In the meantime, this is just a huge bummer. The 1-2 punch of Bart and Ramos provided some much needed excitement in a moribund organization that’s years away, if ever, from becoming talent-rich. Get well soon, Joey Bart, and maybe we’ll see you after the Super 2 cutoff in 2020.