San Francisco Giants catcher Patrick Bailey is starting to rake in the accolades for his stellar year behind the plate. He was named a National League Gold Glove finalist at his position last week and, Thursday, was named the Fielding Bible Awards’ Player of the Year for 2025.
The Fielding Bible Awards named the best defensive player at each position for the previous season, and Bailey was not just the best catcher in both leagues, but the best overall defensive player.
Bailey had outlier defensive metrics in 2025 with exceptional pitch framing numbers, pop time and arm to snag base-stealers. He led all catchers with 19 defensive runs saved and 40 strike zone runs saved, which points to his framing abilities. With those numbers and the honor, he is a likely choice to win the Rawlings Platinum Glove Award, also given to the best overall defensive player in baseball.
Bailey is the third Player of the Year honored since Sports Information Solutions, the entity that decides the winners, decided to give an overall award.
“Patrick Bailey has many ways of controlling a game as a catcher,” said SIS editorial operations lead Mark Simon in a statement. “He is a leader on the field with the way he supports his pitching staff defensively through pitch framing, stolen base prevention, and pitch blocking. He is a deserving honoree as Defensive Player of the Year.”
Silver Matt Chapman: Giants third baseman Matt Chapman is a finalist for a Silver Slugger award. Despite missing several weeks with a hand injury in midseason – one that impacted his batting in the second half – he hit 21 home runs with a .770 OPS in 128 games.
The San Diego Padres’ Manny Machado, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Max Muncy and the Atlanta Braves’ Austin Riley are also finalists among NL third basemen.
Rintaro Sasaki: Surprisingly, Stanford baseball phenom and Japan native Rintaro Sasaki had his name called at the 2025 Nippon Professional Baseball draft. The Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks selected the 20-year-old, according to JapanBall.
It’s been expected that Sasaki – who bypassed the 2023 NPB draft to attend Stanford – will enter the 2026 MLB draft. Should Sasaki decline to sign with the Hawks and continue his path to the big leagues, the team loses a first-round pick with no compensation.
Sasaki batted .269 with seven home runs in 52 games with the Cardinal last season.
