Joey Bart on trade that brought him to hometown Braves: ‘It’s unreal’

On Thursday, in Des Moines, Iowa, Joey Bart had gone 2-for-2 and walked twice playing for Triple-A Indianapolis. In the top of the sixth, after a single, Bart was lifted for a pinch-runner.

Bart was on a rehab assignment for the Pirates and wasn’t quite sure why he was being taken out of the game.

“I knew something was up,” Bart said in the Braves’ dugout at Truist Park on Friday. “I was supposed to play seven innings, and ended up coming out after the fifth. I wasn’t sure what was going on. I was luckily on base a lot, so maybe I was thinking that they’re giving my legs a blow? I got a call soon after I got out.”

The call informed Bart that he had been traded to the Atlanta Braves, his hometown team.

“It’s unreal, man. Yeah, it’s special,” Bart said. “I was lucky to be here a couple weeks ago when (the Pirates) were in town. I mean, just looking around this place, seeing these fans, seeing these people is unbelievable. So means a lot to me. I’m rooted here. I went to school here. This is a super cool opportunity.”

Bart, 29, graduated from Buford High School before going on to star at Georgia Tech. He grew up watching the great Braves teams of the 2000s that included fellow catcher Brian McCann, Andruw Jones, Rafael Furcal and Chipper Jones, he recalled while looking out onto the field. Bart attended games at Truist Park with his college buddies in 2017 when the stadium opened — he nodded toward the Chop House in right field as he remembered where he watched games that season.

Then his own professional journey began a year later when he was the No. 2 overall draft pick by the San Francisco Giants. Bart played 130 games in the minors, as well as 10 in the Arizona Fall League in 2019, before making his MLB debut Aug. 20, 2020.

“I think he got thrown into a tough situation in San Francisco. When (catcher) Buster (Posey) opted out for COVID, (Bart) was kind of thrown into the mix. That’s not the best environment to make your debut, especially as a highly-touted prospect,” Braves outfielder Mike Yastrzemski, a teammate of Bart’s with the Giants, said Friday. “I watched him struggle a little bit, and you can learn a lot about a guy when you see him struggle. And all he did was work harder and harder. And when he ended up in Pittsburgh, and I saw all that hard work kind of come to fruition, I was really happy for him.”

Bart is a .240 career hitter, but had a .257 average in 194 games with the Pirates. He had an OPS of .738, hit 19 homers and drove in 81 runs.

Those aren’t necessarily eye-popping numbers, but if Bart can give the Braves that sort of production, then the trade for pitcher Hunter Stratton will be more than worth it. Fill-ins Sandy León, Chadwick Tromp and Austin Wynns, in the absence of Sean Murphy, were giving the Braves next to nothing from the plate.

“I remember last year we couldn’t get him out, playing for the Pirates,” Braves manager Walt Weiss said. “There’s offensive potential there. He’s been really good against left-hand pitching, a solid catcher. It’s a good story, coming back home, so I’m sure he’s really enjoying that. I like him. He’s a talented guy.”

On May 12, Bart was placed on the 10-day injured list with a foot infection. He said Friday he still wasn’t sure how he came to have the condition that required him not to sweat, “so I was like, ‘All right, so what am I supposed to do?’” and a condition that became a serious concern.

But Bart, wearing No. 16, said his left foot is fine now, and thus he was activated and available to play Friday if needed.

“I don’t think anybody thought it was gonna get that bad. I certainly didn’t. But it did,” Bart said. “It’s sports. You kind of just bounce back, and luckily, I got it in the right hands at the right time, we got it taken care of, and it was just a matter of just letting it heal, which was frustrating. It took about 10 days there to let it heal up and then it was feeling better. Luckily, it healed fast, and I could get moving faster than expected.”

Bart was hitting .259 for the Pirates this season over 21 games. He had driven in six and knocked a pair of homers. He had a four-hit game against his former team, the Giants, in San Francisco in May.

His best defensive seasons came in 2020 and 2023 with the Giants. The Braves will hope he can perform at those levels on days when starting catcher Drake Baldwin gets a day off or is in the lineup as the designated hitter.

“Defensively, he’s great. He’s got a great arm. He calls a good game,” Yastrzemski said, adding he was excited to give Bart, “a big hug,” when he saw Bart in the clubhouse for the first time Friday. “And those are some of the things that I think — as much as everybody loves to hit and have fun, he takes pride in that (defense). He’s got a little bit of everything. I don’t think he goes the No. 2 pick in the draft if you don’t have a little bit of everything. I’m excited to be teammates with him again and to see what he can bring here at home."

Bart is not only back home in Atlanta but also joining a first-place team, while coming from a squad one game above .500 and 8.5 games back in the NL Central standings. That only adds to his excitement about wearing the uniform he grew up cheering for not too long ago.