Buster Posey hasn’t been too bold in this offseason, other than boldly doing nothing much, but his leadership so far has been marked by decisive moves that shows his need for speed, when he can step up.
ogc thoughts
Quick Trigger
A sign of all this was when Buster moved back to the Bay Area after just one year. He had sold off his Bay Area home and moved his family to his hometown in Georgia, ostensibly to be nearer to family. But despite the fact that moving is a huge pain in the ass, and it looked odd that he returned after only a year, he made that bold decision to move back. Clearly, with hindsight, he also missed being part of baseball, as he had bought into the Giants and inserted himself into operations.
Bold Preamble
The first thing he did boldly for the Giants was before he actually took Zaidi's job: taking over the negotiations to sign Matt Chapman, and then getting the 9-figure contract done post haste. Zaidi said that it wasn't that big a deal because he was hospitalized and needed the assist, but, clearly, now that we know he was soon to be fired, Posey's actions showed how decisive he was in determining that there was not enough alignment between what Zaidi was doing and what the Giants wanted done, in the Chapman negotiations, and he didn't care and took over the negotiations.
Taking the Job
Then there was Buster quickly choosing to replace Zaidi, as President of Baseball Operations. Nothing bolder than that, he's never run an organization before, never held an executive position, he could have stayed simply an owner without the daily 24x7 worries of running a baseball operation, and spend time with his family. He made a huge amount of money from investing in an energy drink company (that financed his Giants ownership stake), he didn't have to do anything for the rest of his life, if he didn't want to. He boldly chose to be the head.
Striking From the Get Go
One of the first things he did boldly and quickly after getting named President of Baseball Operations was signing Willy Adames to the biggest contract in Giants history, surpassing his own contract. He needed a shortstop, someone who could be a veteran leader, as well as an RBI hitter, and decided that Adames was the guy he needed, and got him immediately. Reminded me of how Sabean preferred the bird in the hand vs. the two in the bush.
Verlander Vision
He was also bold with Verlander. To sell Verlander on joining the Giants, he talked about a grand vision of Verlander winning his 300th game as a Giants pitcher. As outlandish as that sounds (especially now that we know what happened in the 2025 season), it was pretty bold to suggest such a possibility.
Posey is Not Patient
One thing that fans nattered about in the early 2025 season is about Posey being patient with players and rewarding good play. Which is a load of BS. He hasn’t been patient, just decisive.
The movements in the roster didn’t happen in season, like it did with Zaidi, but was done in the offseason. And while Zaidi didn’t give rope to players who weren’t doing well, Posey cut off players without giving them a chance.
First, he didn’t give Thairo Estrada a chance to come back. He gave us two good seasons and was hampered by injuries last season. He could have been the bench guy, if there was any worries, and he could have signed a minor league deal and compete with Fitzgerald for 2B.
And I’m not arguing this was a mistake. But this shows how Posey and his group made this decision, which admittedly is tempered by Estrada being arbitration eligible and thus an expensive option, instead choosing Fitzgerald and Schmitt over giving Estrada a chance to win the position back, as he was good in 2022-23. He determined that he was done, and moved on.
Second, Harrison has been an above average starter for 1.5 seasons until he got blown up in his last two starts of 2024, which was understandable because he was going beyond his prior innings thrown. And yet Posey sent him back down to the minors, ostensibly to get healthy to start (more likely, it had to do with him being satisfied with one, albeit elite, pitch). But he could have done the Birdsong role on Opening Day.
And I’m not saying that Birdsong didn’t earn his spot, but that Harrison could have been doing that role, having earned it with a lot of good performances. And I’m not saying Harrison couldn’t benefit from pitching in AAA, but most pitcher who pitched as well as he did in the majors expects to be in the majors. He got pushed back by illness, but he should be able to pitch 2 innings like Birdsong. But Buster didn’t have the patience to see if he could do more in the majors, he got sent down, and soon after Harrison said in an interview that he didn’t need another pitch, he was done in the Devers trade.
Same with Hjelle. He had a good season in 2024. Got pushed off the roster as well. And he’s actually the one who got pushed out by Birdsong, I expected him to come back when they push Birdsong to stretch out as a starter, but then his personal problems exploded into the news, and soon he was let go.
Again, not that I disagree with these decisions, but it hasn’t been all kumbaya in Busterville, as some suggested during the 2025 season. Clearly, some players have gotten the short end of the stick, only it happened before the season started.
Devers Trade
Then there was the Devers trade midseason 2025. The boldest most decisive move so far. Traded away a couple of top prospects (Harrison and Tibbs, and Harrison was already a middle rotation quality starting pitcher, with potential for top of rotation because of his elite fastball, which was sometimes Top 5 in pitch value, at times), while taking on the biggest contract in Giants history (total of over $600M between Chapman, Adames and Devers) with a player who now has a bad public image as someone who refused to pick up a glove and help out his team.
I still don’t understand why Devers’ image got maligned. Such complaints ignored how his former team, particularly the GM but also the owner, treated him like he was the 26th player on the roster, moving him off 3B with no warning or discussion, and forcing him to be DH, even though he wanted to play a position, telling him to forget his glove in spring training. But then misfortune hit and the GM and team suddenly needed him at 1B position, and demanded he comply, like a slave with no feeling, and he told them it's not his problem, it's the GM's problem.
At what Devers was being paid, being the player with the biggest contract on the team, most players would feel offended to be told that he is being moved off the position he played for the organization for a dozen years, since he was 16. If their owner was told by his board of directors that they were moving him out of the CEO/Chairman position, with no forewarning or discussion, he would not have been happy about it either.
But it was great for the Giants: Posey got the big bat that the Giants have been searching for since Bonds left, and failed pursuits of big hitters like Harper, Stanton, Judge and Ohtani. For better or worse, this move was shocking in what he obtained, a bold move taking on over $250M in contract value.
The Melvin Experience
Then there was Buster’s handling of Melvin. He first picked up Melvin's option, as a way to rally the troups (and which failed), and then firing him even though he picked up the option and now owe Melvin that money.
Many would just suffer through the bad decision, and let Melvin stay on. The Padres did that with Bochy and Melvin, telling them in their last year of their contract that they are persona non grata, and can go pursue a job with another team, and both ended up with the Giants. The Padres was hoping another team would save them from their bad situation, but they were willing to live with the manager if nobody took them off their hands, whereas Posey and the Giants ate his contract, with nary a worry. Buster had moved on.
Hiring Vitello
Lastly, so far, hiring a college coach, Tony Vitello, who hasn't had any MLB professional experience, to be the Giants manager, perhaps the boldest, most decisive move yet. As repeated ad nauseum in the press, this simply hasn't been done, ever, in MLB history. Managers have been former players or coaches, either majors or minors, and never from the college ranks.
Bold Buster
Buster has been bold and decisive since returning to the SF Bay Area, not willing to suffer with a bad situation when he can cut the ties and move on, and to get what the Giants needed, he pushed to get those players. Of course, bold and decisive does not mean that he will be successful in returning the Giants to its former success, but it is a sign of how he works as an executive.
So far, so good, from my view, because he couldn’t fix everything within a season. Which nobody has ever or can, unless you want to count Sabean returning the Giants to the playoffs in his first season, but it took several years to get the team to the World Series.
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