Kawakami: The Buster Posey vibe shift produces a very different Giants mood

They are literally not so different from a year ago, if you look at any part of this roster. Not so different at all.

Wilmer Flores, Matt Chapman, and Heliot Ramos as the Giants’ star position players in this buoyant 5-1 rush to start the season? Not new territory. Logan Webb and Jordan Hicks stacking up shutout innings? Sounds familiar. Ryan Walker and Camilo Doval closing games down with dynamite stuff? Certainly not a startling development.

No, the 2025 Giants aren’t wholly changed from the inert squad that finished up the franchise’s third consecutive non-playoff season last September. Most of the names remain the same. Bob Melvin is still the manager. It’s not like team president Buster Posey kicked over the table last offseason and conjured a whole new roster for this spring.

So why does everything feel very different heading into Friday’s home opener at Oracle Park?

It’s all about the vibes. It’s about the overall themes. It’s about everything feeling a lot more stable and more connected to the long haul of a season instead of manically trying to leverage every percentage for every single plate appearance. Really, it’s about Posey understanding how much the vibes matter in a clubhouse, over a 162-game schedule, and to a rabid fan base that wants to feel connected to all of it.

In the most basic terms, everybody knows that, if healthy, Chapman, Ramos, Flores (as long as he stays hot), Willy Adames, Jung Hoo Lee, and Patrick Bailey will be in the lineup almost every day. And Webb already is well on his way to another 200-inning season. The Giants’ top guys will “post,” in baseball terms. There will be consistency. And there will be implied responsibilities on all sides.

“Generally, Buster’s talked about guys who post,” new general manager Zack Minasian said on my podcast Wednesday. “We’ve talked about positional players who can win on both sides of the ball. [And] pitchers who are going to be aggressive and attack the strike zone.”

That’s pretty clear and basic. Sure, six games isn’t even 4% of a season. The Giants almost certainly will hit a cold streak soon. They might fall far behind the Dodgers very quickly. (Funny note: Entering Thursday, the Rockies had only played five games and were already 5 1/2 games behind the 8-0 Dodgers.)

It won’t always feel like this for the 2025 Giants. But over this homestand, I think fans will sense the difference in this team. They’ve been waiting for this. And I think the park will sound different because of it. Because if you have talented, committed, and reliable players doing reliable things, there is always a way to build momentum and sustain it over a whole season.

Taking five out of six in Cincinnati and Houston is a fairly substantial achievement for any team at any time. As an opening salvo for the Posey era, it was just about perfect.

Notably, almost all of these players were assembled by Farhan Zaidi in previous seasons. Zaidi, who hired Minasian as a lieutenant back in 2019, valued many of the things being valued now. And Posey, hired to replace Zaidi after last season, only made two big additions this offseason — signing Adames and Justin Verlander, who is getting the start on Friday.

But the emphasis is all different with Posey in charge.

Even before last season ended and before he was officially installed atop the organization, Posey helped negotiate a $151 million contract extension for Chapman. Then Posey made sure to bring back Flores and Mike Yastrzemski — at least partially because they’re so popular in the clubhouse. And Posey gave Adames, a natural leader and very reliable player, a franchise-record $182 million deal, then brought Verlander on a one-year deal.

The overall themes: All these guys are as good in the clubhouse as they are in the lineup. And, just like the 2010, 2012, and 2014 championship teams, this will be about pitching, defense, and situational hitting. You build that through relationships and through players who are committed to each other. And for this team, that started in the offseason.

“I think he’s got a really good way about him that rubs off on his teammates,” Minasian said of Flores. “And I think as you start having different types of leaders and different types of personalities, you can have a really healthy clubhouse.

“You know, having Willy Adames with his personality, Wilmer with his, Matt Chapman with his, JV, Webby, all these guys, they’re all completely different, but all very passionate about the game, very good teammates.”

The Giants’ rotation hasn’t delivered a single bad start one time through the rotation (plus a squeezed-in extra start for Webb). Their 2.72 team ERA so far is fifth best in the majors — and they haven’t played a game at spacious Oracle Park yet. Also, their 1.74 bullpen ERA ranks third in the league, with the luxury of a developing double-closer situation.

Plus, there’s a fleet of young arms just biding time in Triple-A either as likely replacements when necessary or potential trade fodder this summer.

On the offensive side, the Giants have already hit 10 home runs, tied for sixth-most in the majors. That rate likely will drop during the homestand. Outside of the HRs, the Giants have been a middle-of-the-pack offense (ranking 22nd in on-base percentage, 12th in slugging, and 15th in OPS). But that’s while they wait for Adames, Bailey, and LaMonte Wade Jr. to heat up.

Notably, there was a push in spring training to try to steal more bases, and the Giants already have six in six games so far (by five different players), after stealing only 68 in 162 last year, which ranked second-to-last in the majors.

There’s some randomness involved, of course. The Giants’ best player so far has been Flores, who was banged up and awful last season. But he already has hit as many homers this season (four) as he hit all of last year in 214 at-bats.

How is this happening? Well, it works out like that sometimes. And you ride it for as long as you can. Then hope you get other random hot streaks over 162 games.

The Giants’ entire 2021 season, when they started out fast and raced to 107 wins in Posey’s final campaign as a player, was just like that almost every day. And Posey has cited that season several times as something that theoretically could be repeated at any time with the right players. It’s incredibly unlikely this season, but not impossible.

Just getting into the playoffs this season would be a major step forward. And the 5-1 start makes you wonder. There will be slumps and tougher days ahead. But the Giants feel like a stronger, more sustainable, and more cohesive team right now. That’s a major achievement all by itself, with only 156 games left to test it out.