Giants once again line up behind Posey in new front office role

Giants once again line up behind Posey in new front office role originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

SAN FRANCISCO — When Buster Posey returned to the Giants in the spring of 2021, he didn’t wait long to make his presence felt. The Giants met on the first day of camp and Posey decided to address the room. During a short speech, he spoke passionately to surprised players and coaches about how the first goal that season was to win the National League West.

“The bar is not to sneak into a Wild Card spot,” he said later. “The bar for us with the Giants is to go out and win the division.”

Seven months later, the Giants were division champs, but a few weeks after their celebration, Posey decided that he would no longer chase NL West and World Series titles, at least as a player. He retired to raise his four young children, but the pull of baseball and the Bay Area was too strong. The Poseys moved back to Georgia but quickly returned, and the man who led the franchise to three titles bought into its ownership group.

As the Giants became all too familiar with mediocrity this season, the fate of president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi was front and center. For months, people at all levels of the organization anticipated a change, and often during those discussions, Posey was brought up.

He has taken a more hands-on role since the middle of last season, and some team officials joked recently that, at the very least, Posey should be the one to hand a new Giants jersey to the next leader of the front office. It would be a needed signal to a fan base that has run out of patience.

Monday’s changing of leadership brought a twist, though. If there’s a jersey waiting for the new president of baseball operations during Tuesday’s press conference, it will be a game-worn one.

No. 28 decided to do the job himself.

It is a fascinating challenge for a man who to this point has seemingly not known how to fail. Posey went to Florida State as a shortstop and pitcher, teaching himself how to catch in part by getting into a crouch while he watched games on television. He became a first-round pick and then an MVP and three-time champion. At some point in his tenure as president of baseball operations, he likely is to take a short midseason break to get inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Posey was so successful as a businessman during his playing days that he was able to buy a small stake in the Giants, with much of that flexibility likely coming from his early investment in the sports drink BodyArmor. The Poseys have become leading advocates for pediatric cancer research, and during his playing days, teammates marveled at how Buster and Kristen managed to dedicate so much time to hospital visits when they had so much else going on.

As he attacks a new venture, Posey likely will borrow from a man he played for. One of Bruce Bochy’s greatest strengths was his ability to delegate, leaving many of the day-to-day machinations of his roster to guys like Dave Righetti and Ron Wotus as he served as the clubhouse’s CEO. When accountability was needed, Bochy was always there, and Posey figures to lead the same way.

The announcement on Monday included a line from chairman Greg Johnson about the organization’s commitment “to following the Selig Rule and ensuring diversity in our hiring for any of our open positions.” It’s unclear at the moment what all of this means for general manager Pete Putila, or others in prominent front office positions, but Posey is expected to bring in many of his own people, men or women who are more familiar with all that goes into running a baseball operations department.

A’s assistant GM Billy Owens was a candidate for the job that ultimately went to Scott Harris, and he figures to be near the top of the list again. In recent weeks, former Giants catcher Nick Hundley’s name was floated as a possible choice if Zaidi got fired. Hundley once backed up Posey and has since gotten experience with the commissioner’s office and the Texas Rangers. Former Marlins general manager Kim Ng and Arizona’s Amiel Sawdaye were candidates in 2018 and could be appealing options.

All would bring the day-to-day baseball operations experience that Posey lacks, but he also could just lean on the executives he knows best. Jeremy Shelley was so valuable to the championship regime that Zaidi kept him around as an assistant general manager, and there might be nobody in the world who knows the organization and roster better than he does. Brian Sabean was in charge when the Giants drafted Posey and he could be a valuable resource in some capacity.

By naming a new president of baseball operations on day one of their offseason, the Giants got the most important hire out of the way before most of their players had even fully packed up. Posey was patient at the plate, and he can afford to be the same way as he fills out his front office. It’s important, too, that he gets it right.

This is a PR win for the Giants, but it does come with risk. It was never going to be difficult to part ways with Zaidi, who has a Bay Area background but could not connect with the fan base or clubhouse.

But this is Buster Posey. If he does fail, it will get awkward, although perhaps those concerns are overblown. Posey might be the most self-aware superstar the organization has ever had. He stepped away during the pandemic and again a year later when he was coming off an All-Star season. He’s not afraid to make difficult decisions.

When he retired, Posey made it clear that the organization was now in Logan Webb’s hands, and on Sunday it was Webb who thanked fans after the final out of a disappointing season. Afterward, Matt Chapman took the microphone and promised a return to the postseason.

In the clubhouse a few minutes later, Chapman quietly made the rounds. Word was starting to spread that Zaidi was on the way out, and there was hope that Posey would take a leading role. On Monday, it became official.

“I’m very excited for Buster and excited to see what he brings in this position,” Webb said in a text message. “Buster is a brilliant baseball mind and I can’t wait to be a part of it.”

Webb soon will join Chapman and Posey in recruiting free agents, although it might be difficult to line their schedules up. Posey has two sets of twins, Chapman just had his first daughter, and Webb has his first child on the way this week. In reality, it doesn’t matter if all three are part of a pitch.

Zaidi took a lot of heat for failing to land a marquee free agent, but that part of his legacy is unfair. The Giants were going to be massive underdogs for Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge regardless of who was involved, and Zaidi did land Carlos Correa before the organization as a whole decided to step away over health concerns.

The Correa chase reiterated the biggest truth about free agency. There was no fancy sales pitch, just a promise to write a check larger than anyone else would. That will be the most fascinating part of Posey’s first offseason in charge.

He is the perfect person to sit across a table from a Juan Soto or Blake Snell, but ultimately this will come down to the size of that check. There’s little doubt that Posey will change the culture of the organization for the better and bring more accountability to the clubhouse and playing field, but as Zaidi learned, the end result is all that really matters.

If Buster Posey’s baseball operations department can convince Buster Posey’s ownership group to make a big splash in free agency, the Giants will be a lot closer to once again competing for division titles.

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