SAN FRANCISCO -- Joey Bart didn’t know if he could really be surprised by this point. He had seen things online, and the writing appeared to be on the wall that he was not going to be a Giant much longer.

He also had a funny feeling about Pittsburgh. They appeared to have a need for a catcher, and he had family ties to the area since his father, Tommy, grew up in nearby Lower Burrell. So when Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi called him earlier this month to tell him he was being traded to the Pirates, the first thought was excitement at a new opportunity.

"But at the same time, it's just different because you're somewhere for so long,” said Bart on the field coming in from a bullpen session at Oracle Park on Friday. “Sometimes, things happen so fast. So it's really just getting caught up and taking advantage of every opportunity."

Saturday marked the first time Bart started against the club that drafted him second overall in 2018, making him the heir apparent to Buster Posey behind the plate. That didn’t happen. He never posted an OPS above .667 in his parts of four Major League seasons with the Giants from 2020 to 2023, and he spent almost as much time in the Minors or on the injured list than their active roster during that stretch. While he did crack the Giants’ Opening Day roster, he was designated for assignment before appearing in a game with them this season.

The Pirates needed a catcher with Yasmani Grandal and Jason Delay on the injured list, so they were a natural fit. So far, it has been a great fit. Bart hit three home runs over his first 28 plate appearances with his new club, and he’s building relationships with his new pitching staff, who are quickly learning to like him.

"He's got all the confidence in the world,” said Bailey Falter after tossing seven strong innings to Bart on Tuesday. “There's a reason why I don't shake Joey.”

His Pirates tenure is obviously very young, but with Grandal on a rehab assignment and nearing a return, a good start certainly helps his case for sticking with the team. Sometimes all it takes is a change of scenery for a player to hit the reset button and start to produce.

“When you are in places, good, bad or indifferent, this is from personal experience, the change of scenery is good. It has an effect on people,” said manager Derek Shelton. “The biggest component is when you go to the new place, for any of us, you come with a clean slate. That’s not saying there was any slate to be cleaned, but when you go somewhere new, it’s a fresh outlook on how you are doing things and why you are doing them.”

But at the same time, that change can be bittersweet. Bart tried to keep his distance from his former Giants teammates Friday outside of Logan Webb, but his return is a reminder about how he misses his former crew.

“It's crazy -- once you leave, you don't realize how big and how close those relationships were and really what you valued,” Bart said. “And that's important to me, obviously, is relationships. And those are the things that you're really going to remember. So I'm excited to hopefully get caught up with some of these guys."

The good news is he gets to build new relationships with his new club. It’s way too early to guess how much Bart is going to factor into the team’s future plans, but he likes the direction they are going.

"We're young, we're talented,” Bart said. “There's a lot of talent on the field. There's a lot of talent coming. So it's exciting.”