Joey Bart's rehab assignment shifts to Indianapolis, starts against Clippers

Joey Bart’s return path took a meaningful step at Victory Field, where the Pirates moved his rehab assignment to Indianapolis and put him back in the lineup against the Columbus Clippers at 7:05 p.m. ET. For Pittsburgh, the assignment was less about Triple-A logistics than about when Bart might be ready to reclaim a catching role after a left foot infection sent him to the injured list in May.

The Pirates placed Bart on the 10-day injured list on May 12, retroactive to May 10, and MLB.com’s injury tracker said he began his rehab assignment in Bradenton on June 10 before the move to Indianapolis on June 12. Before the injury, Bart had appeared in 21 games for Pittsburgh and was hitting .259 with two home runs and six RBI. He had been sharing starting catching duties with Henry Davis, and when he went down, the Pirates recalled Endy Rodríguez from Triple-A Indianapolis to fill the roster spot.

That is why the transfer mattered for Pittsburgh as much as it mattered for Indianapolis. Bart was the second major league rehabber assigned to the Indians this season, following Jared Jones, a reminder that the club has become a direct checkpoint for players working back toward the majors. The Pirates listed Bart’s expected return as TBD, but the move to Triple-A gave them a better read on the details that matter now: how much catching he can handle, whether his timing is back, and whether his bat still looks like a major league bat.

Bart’s first game in Indianapolis answered part of that question immediately. He went 3-for-4 with a double and a two-run home run as the Indians beat Columbus 6-1, showing the kind of live at-bats Pittsburgh wanted to see before making a decision. The matchup also put him in front of high-level pitching while keeping the game pressure real enough to matter.

Khristian Curtis added another layer to the night, striking out 10 in 5.2 scoreless innings in his Triple-A debut. But the bigger storyline belonged to Bart, whose rehab assignment in Indianapolis gave the Pirates a firmer timetable and a much sharper view of what their catching picture might look like when he is ready to come back.