Granite Bay native Andrew Knapp back with childhood team, playing for River Cats
Andrew Knapp spent many of his earliest years around baseball. His dad, Mike, a journeyman minor-leaguer from 1986 to 1996, kept his son around fields and clubhouses, traveling to some 35 states before he was 5 years old.
Hanging around professional ball players became old hat by the time Andrew went to his first major league game at Candlestick Park to see the Giants play the New York Mets during the 1999 season. Mike was friends with former Giant and Sacramento-area native F.P. Santangelo and Mets pitcher Rick Reed was a former roommate, so the Knapps were allowed on the field before the game.
Andrew, who was 8 at the time, and his brother, Aaron, weren’t all that impressed given how many baseball fields and clubhouses they had already seen.
“The funny thing about it, we’re sitting right behind home plate,” Mike Knapp said in a recent phone interview. “Both my boys, the thing that they wanted to do the most was to go to the very top deck so they could see the whole bay and get up to the highest point and see the stadium from that perspective, which was actually pretty funny.
“A kid who grew up on the field was like, ‘Yeah, I’ve been on the field before, I want to get to the high seats.’”
That game helped spark Andrew’s fandom. And some 23 years later, he’s a member of the Giants organization playing catcher for the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats. He plays his home games at Sutter Health Park, a short drive west from where he grew up in Granite Bay.
“Sometimes you don’t know if you’re going to get an opportunity for the team you cheered for as a young kid,” he told the Bee. “So I was really excited to be back in Sac, but mostly just with the Giants.”
Knapp, a switch-hitting catcher, signed with the organization July 22. It’s his fourth team since April after first breaking into the majors with the Philadelphia Phillies in 2017. He initially joined Philadelphia as a second-round pick in the 2013 draft following two seasons at Cal. He was affectionately known by Phillies fans as the best backup catcher in baseball. He eventually played behind Silver Slugger winner and three-time All-Star J.T. Realmuto.
Knapp’s best season came during the pandemic-shortened 2020. He slashed .278/.404/.444 with an .849 OPS that ranked eighth among catchers with at least 50 plate appearances. But Knapp was unable to replicate that production in the batters box as his batting average fell to .152 in 2021.
Philadelphia granted him free agency last fall and he signed with the Reds, was released in April, joined the Pirates and later the Mariners for short big-league stints before landing with the Giants.
Knapp’s currently playing well with the River Cats in an everyday role. He was named the Pacific Coast League player of the week for July 25 through 31 when he went 9-for-20 with four home runs. But his name remains off the Major League team’s 40-man roster. Perhaps he’d get promoted if Joey Bart or Austin Wynns had to miss time with an injury. Fellow catcher Ford Proctor, also with the River Cats, does have a spot on the 40-man roster.
Getting five to six starts a week with Sacramento has allowed Knapp to get more comfortable at the plate, he said, noting his production fell during his last Phillies season in large part due to inconsistent playing time.
“Any time he got regular at-bats in Philly, he performed and hit and did his thing,” Mike, his father, said. “It’s really tough to sit on the bench for a week and then you get to face (Jacob) DeGrom. That’s a tough job for somebody that’s playing every day.”
The silver lining: Andrew returned to where he grew up in the Sacramento area. He gets to live in his offseason home in El Dorado Hills where he, his wife, Hannah, and his 1-year-old son, Brady, have settled down. His brother, Aaron, also recently moved back after a four-year minor league career. Plus his parents get to regularly attend his games after he spent most of his career on the East Coast.
It first became apparent Knapp had a future in baseball while playing for Pat Esposito at Granite Bay High School. His junior season he hit .500 with six home runs and 37 RBIs to earn MaxPreps Junior player of the year, Sierra Foothill League MVP and All-Metro honors.
“I remember watching Andrew as an 11-year-old play All-Stars with a bunch of 12-year-olds, and be able to hit left-handed and right-handed and hit home runs,” Esposito said. “We don’t have very many guys in our 27 years at this school hit .500.”
Knapp, now 30, is hoping another major league opportunity awaits either with the Giants or elsewhere.
Until then, the challenge is maintain a level head in the minors. No longer does Knapp enjoy the vast benefits of being with a big league team like a drastically higher salary, luxurious hotels, meals, chartered flights and swanky clubhouses. Instead, he’s back to flying to smaller cities on commercial flights and staying in run-of-the-mill hotels. All while making a fraction of what he used to, though he made $4.36 million in the majors, according to Baseball Reference. He’s slated for free agency after the season.
“I’m kind of just taking it for what it is. It’s really fun getting more playing time,” Knapp said. “I was a backup in Philly my whole career there, behind one of the guys who catches the most out of anyone in baseball. So being able to get regular at-bats has definitely been fun. I feel a lot more like myself at the plate. But, just meeting new people, and kind of seeing how their organizations do things and what they value has been pretty cool.”
Fortunately for Knapp, he has his father as a sounding board. Mike played for 11 different teams at various levels throughout a professional baseball career that never included a trip to the Major Leagues. Mike played in systems for the Angels, Cubs, Royals, Reds, Orioles and Mariners, but never got higher than Triple-A, where he spent parts of seven seasons.
“I think the biggest thing there, all you can really control is what he does,” Mike said of Andrew. “You can’t control other people’s decision making, you can’t control what the front office is thinking. You certainly can’t control how decisions are made outside of yourself, basically. So it’s keeping yourself ready, keeping yourself in the best shape you’re in and the best mental place you can be.”
For Mike, who has spent his post-baseball career working in tech, spending 11 seasons toiling the minor leagues was a grind throughout his 20s and into his 30s. But seeing his son make it to baseball’s highest level with the Phillies, Pirates and Mariners gave him a refreshed perspective.
“It was the best. It was incredible,” he said of Andrew’s major league debut. “It was one of those moments where I was able to step back and go, ‘okay, if for whatever reason I didn’t get to the big leagues was part of the journey for him to get there, then it was worth every second.”
