Patrick Bailey activated, Joey Bart optioned

The San Francisco Giants are getting some reinforcements ahead of their series finale against the Cleveland Guardians, in which they’ll try to avoid going a (fairly disappointing) 4-2 on the home stand, and instead go a (very nice) 5-1.

That reinforcement is coming in the form of one of baseball’s top rookies, as catcher Patrick Bailey has been activated from the Injured List. The corresponding move is the obvious one, as fellow catcher Joey Bart has been optioned to AAA Sacramento.

A switch-hitter, Bailey jumps straight into the lineup for Wednesday’s day game against Cleveland, where he’ll be behind the dish to catch fellow rookie phenom Kyle Harrison, and will bat sixth.

Bailey, who has a .694 OPS and a 90 OPS+ in his debut season, with arguably the best defense in the Majors — position be damned — hasn’t played since suffering a concussion in a home plate collision on September 5. Concussions are, unfortunately, a positional hazard, and it’s the third of his career. The good news is that Bailey said it was a mild concussion.

With the Giants stuck in a very tight playoff race, you can expect Bailey to be an everyday player for the rest of the season. The Giants have 17 games left and, barring injury — or falling out of the race — I’d be shocked if Bailey started fewer than 16 of them.

Bart hit 0-9 in his first Major League action since May, but his defense and calling of games was impressive, and he had much better at-bats than the numbers suggest. That said, it’s hard to know what his role is for the organization going forward.