Is it a good sign or bad sign that the Giants aren’t mentioned anywhere near the Juan Soto free-agent sweepstakes as the auction really starts to heat up? Good or bad indication for the Giants’ future that the sad-sack Angels, of all teams, have been 10 times more aggressive so far this offseason? Good or bad that the Giants haven’t made many headlines and are assuredly not interested in blowing everything up this off-season?
I’d say those are all very Buster Posey things, actually. And that we’re getting clear and calm hints about how the new team president and his lieutenants are going to act — or, more to the point, not act — at least in the preliminary days.
Because what we’re getting so far is a no-B.S. off-season. No fireworks. No hot-and-heavy pursuits of premium free agents. (Which means no despairing disappointments.) No jettisoning of solid players for marginal transactional and financial gains. No doing stuff just out of habit or stress relief.
Oh, there’s no doubt that Posey and the Giants will start to get active very soon. The Giants’ roster absolutely needs some upgrading, which Posey hasn’t been shy about saying. Though his front office isn’t throwing around money these days — and, according to reporting by The Athletic’s Andrew Baggarly, is expected to have some 2025 payroll limitations imposed by ownership — the Giants will be open for business over the next few weeks and months. There is work to do. Standing pat cannot be an option.
But Posey always was the most measured member of the Giants’ otherwise maniacal cast of characters during their 2010, 2012, and 2014 championship runs. So it shouldn’t be too surprising that the first months of his Giants’ tenure have been so unhurried. So far, Posey has added several close associates to his front office, including Randy Winn, brought back former general manager Bobby Evans in an advisory role, promoted Zack Minasian and Jeremy Shelley from within, and held onto Mike Yastrzemski with a one-year, $9.3 million deal when Posey could’ve discarded the solid-but-unspectacular outfielder to save some money.
In fact, through several media appearances, starting with his introductory presser on Sept. 30, the most excited I’ve heard Posey get was when he told Jayson Stark and Doug Glanville of the “Starkville” podcast this week that he’s been in touch with Madison Bumgarner, who surprisingly has some interest in being a part of the front office.
This is, to say the least, not very comparable to Farhan Zaidi’s first months in 2018 — and to basically every other day up until Zaidi was removed to make room for Posey. It just wasn’t Zaidi’s inclination to add old Giants to his staff or to keep serenity in the clubhouse by retaining as many good-natured, hard-working guys as possible. (Zaidi’s allegiance to Joc Pederson probably is pretty close to the opposite of this.)
Zaidi, in some very positive ways, was all about constant action — making 20 middling moves every few weeks and making sure the players on the current roster always knew they could be replaced by somebody cheaper or with a more interesting analytical profile. Zaidi mostly improved the Giants at the margins. But there’s a wear-and-tear when instability is the perpetual state of things. Posey is absolutely, positively not about instability.
And, of course, Zaidi also invested a ton of time and enormous levels of energy chasing after top free agents, starting with Bryce Harper in Zaidi’s very first off-season as the Giants’ chief. After that came similarly fervent and unsuccessful runs at Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
The star-chasing all felt forced from Zaidi. I don’t think this is how he wanted to run his franchise. He wanted to build it up through the farm system and with wise mid-level signings and then perhaps top it off with a huge star. In that order. But Zaidi needed to keep up fans’ interest and placate the owners, who pay very close attention to the fans’ interest level. So he needed a star that he otherwise couldn’t produce from the farm system. It never felt wholly natural.
I’ll add here that Posey joined the free-agent pitches for several of these sessions. He was onboard. As he has said, you have to try to land the best players — and if you don’t try, you’ll never get one. They just never worked out for the Giants. That doesn’t mean the Giants should never go big-game hunting again.
But it does seem notable that Soto is up for bid, and the Giants seem to be out of it. I don’t think they’ll be overly involved in trying to re-sign Blake Snell, who came to the Giants late last spring and gave them absolutely nothing until the second half of the season — when he was incredible — then decided not to make his final start of the season. [Update: Snell reportedly agreed on Tuesday night to a 5-year, $182 million deal with the Dodgers.] Posey already jumped the line to help the Giants sign Matt Chapman long-term near the end of last season, so the Giants won’t be chasing Alex Bregman or probably trading for Nolan Arenado.
Space to breathe
Like he was as a player, Posey’s not saying or doing anything until he wants to do it. And he can slow-play all this because he walked into this job with the love of Giants fans and trust of Giants ownership (he’s an owner, too!). He has the gift of not having to win over his constituency. That doesn’t mean Posey’s guaranteed to be loved over the next few years no matter what happens in the standings. He’s in charge. This is on him. He might screw things up much worse than Zaidi ever did. But Posey’s stature here gives him the space to take a breath on all this stuff.
His theme is clear, too: He wants to build the next great Giants team in the mold of the three World Series champions, based on pitching and defense. To that point, Posey has Logan Webb, Robbie Ray, and several very talented young arms. He’s got Chapman and Jung Hoo Lee. Tyler Fitzgerald makes sense as a second baseman with some pop. Yastrzemski isn’t going to embarrass anybody in right field. Heliot Ramos might get better and better in left.
Posey needs to decide what to do about Camilo Doval, who is headed to arbitration unless the Giants trade him first. I’ll note that Doval is the last player Posey interacted with as a player on the field, which happened to come at a very tense moment. That would be the top of the ninth inning of Game 5 of the 2021 NL division series against the Dodgers. And Posey called slider after slider in that inning, finally ending on the Cody Bellinger hit that put the Dodgers ahead. What insight does that give Posey leading into this decision after Doval’s sketchy 2024 performance? Interesting to consider.
Beyond that, Posey needs to get a shortstop. The Padres’ Ha-Seong Kim seems like a great fit if the Giants’ doctors are OK with Kim’s surgically repaired shoulder and if the price is right. Willy Adames is a far more dynamic hitter, but that also makes him a much more expensive proposition; and he isn’t nearly the same kind of defensive player.
Do the Giants have a shot at Roki Sasaki? I’m sure Posey & Co. will check in with the Japanese pitching star, who, per international signing rules, can only receive a minor-league deal because he’s under 25. Maybe Sasaki is headed to the Dodgers. That’s certainly the prevailing thought. But if he wants to stay out of Ohtani’s massive shadow, the Giants should, and probably will, offer themselves up as a nice alternative. How about Webb, Sasaki, Ray, and Kyle Harrison at the top of the Giants’ rotation?
Yeah, this is the guy I’d expect Posey to personally try to persuade. If there’s any chance, he has to try. If it turns into a circus, so be it. And if Sasaki seriously considers the Giants, it’d be worth every bit of the b.s.