Pirates reportedly eyeing promotion of former top draft pick after Joey Bart injury

Ahead of game two against the Reds, news broke that the Pirates are reportedly consideringpromoting Henry Davis to the big league roster. According to Noah Hiles, the team is bringing Davis to Cincinnati with the intention of keeping an eye on Joey Bart's injury progress.

The former No. 1 overall pick began the season in Triple-A after losing the backup role to Endy Rodriguez. It’s looking like the two young catchers will be the team's backstop duo for the time being, necessitating a shuffle at first base.

Bart was removed from Game 1 of the series with lower back discomfort. It's quite possible that his stiffness originated from the collision that happened with Rodriguez against the Cardinals.

Pirates reportedly bringing Henry Davis to Cincinnati following injury to Joey Bart.

Losing Bart would hurt, especially since he has seen the bulk of games behind the plate thus far. It doesn’t appear that the Pirates have been utilizing personal catchers this year, but the bigger loss is his bat. Bart was heating up, posting an OPS of .795 with a wRC+ of 127 while driving in five runs.

Losing that offense is a killer to the Pirates, especially for a team that is among the league's worst in scoring runs. Bart was mainly the cleanup hitter, and with Oneil Cruz needing rest following a hit by pitch to his hand, the Pirates may be out their three and four hitters against the Reds.

Nonetheless, Pittsburgh looks to turn to Davis and Rodriguez to hold up behind the plate. Davis struggled in spring training and started to figured things out in Triple-A.

So far in 2025, Davis is batting .286 (8-for-28) with an OPS of .748 and a wRC+ of 111. The big thing for him was dropping the strikeouts and he did, going from 23.7% in the minors last season to 12.9% thus far.

Rodriguez has the edge over Davis defensively, so if Davis wants to prove himself to stay up here, he needs to find success at the plate.

The former No. 1 overall pick has struggled to begin his major league career, yet the Pirates still have faith in him. Davis might be getting his chance in the big leagues once again, and they need him to start living up to the hype he got out of the draft.