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His first GM meetings. His first winter meetings. His first spring training. His first opening day. His first draft. His first glorious winning streak. His first agonizing nosedive.
Buster Posey has taken down many firsts as the Giants’ president of baseball operations, and now he’s fast approaching possibly his most important of the bunch: his first trade deadline.
Depending on what Posey pulls off before Thursday’s 3 p.m. deadline, it’ll determine his vision on the shape and direction of the team not only for the final weeks of the 2025 season but beyond.
Posey will always tell you he likes his team. He supports his team. He has faith in his team. Sometimes fans would say that faith runs too deep, but he’d rather give his struggling players the opportunity to rebound instead of making constant changes.
On the other hand, he can take only so much. He can’t wait forever. As he said in June after his first big roster shuffle, “It’s time to go.” The Giants haven’t gone anywhere lately but downward in the standings.
They’ve lost 10 of 12. They were nine games above .500 on July 11, and now they’re one. The rotation is the thinnest it has been all season. The bullpen is getting taxed. The offense too often amasses two or three runs on six or eight hits along with an oh-fer with runners in scoring position.
Still, despite all that, despite the tailspin, despite the playoff odds diminishing by the day, it’s not in Posey’s nature to scrap what appeared a good thing for much of the season and sell roster parts with an eye on the distant future. He’s too competitive in the here and now for that.
Plus, the modern postseason format welcomes 40% of the teams, so it’s hard to completely fall out of the playoff race unless you’re the White Sox or Orioles or A’s or Rockies or Nationals — or the Pirates, who are in San Francisco as we speak. Pittsburgh is technically a relatively easy series to win, though the Giants never make life easy, as evidenced by Monday’s 6-5 loss to the lowly Buccos.
While the Giants are just four games out of the final wild-card spot, certainly not an insurmountable gap despite two other teams in the way (Reds, Cardinals), it seems clearer by the day to conclude this team is going nowhere and, hey, let’s sell.
But the Giants already landed Rafael Devers, the biggest blockbuster so far in the deadline season, and a sudden sell-off is hardly what Posey had envisioned leading to his first trade deadline. It’s not in his DNA, but it’s not like his team is playing well enough to motivate him to surrender prospects for a late-season playoff push.
The aim continues to be finding players with club control, not two-month rentals, so that any buildup at the deadline would help rosters in future years. That’s why the Devers deal made so much sense; he’s signed through 2033, and the mission was to get him here ASAP and leave the where-does-he-play business for another day.
The needs are no secret: a hitter who can breathe life into an offense that has remained anemic even with Devers, and a starting pitcher who can pick up the slack caused by the injury to Landen Roupp, demotion of Hayden Birdsong, and dropoff of Logan Webb and, to a lesser extent, Robbie Ray.
Put it all together, and it’s no wonder the Giants were swept by the Mets over the weekend. They went 0-for-23 with runners in scoring position while scoring all of five runs, and their pitching was exposed when they were forced into bullpenning their way through Sunday’s game, using an opener for the first time and a whopping seven pitchers over nine innings.
All eyes were on top pitching prospect Carson Whisenhunt on Monday night as management felt obligated to call up the lefty earlier than anticipated and give him a one-game tryout before the deadline, hoping he’d pitch well enough to stick and maintain a rotation spot. The results were mixed. He gave up four runs in two innings before downplaying his marquee changeup and finishing with three shutout innings.
Priorities have evolved. While the Giants once were desperate for a lefty reliever, with Erik Miller shelved, that’s now not so important with the emergence of Joey Lucchesi and Matt Gage and a greater emphasis on trying to deepen the rotation and lineup. Then again, bullpen reinforcements are always welcomed this time of year.
It’s no easy fix, and plenty of pressing questions need final answers. How much do the Giants give up for a starter? What could they fetch for Camilo Doval? Ryan Walker? Luis Matos? Marco Luciano? … Ray, anyone? Do they dare move one of their top prospects, Whisenhunt or Bryce Eldridge, which seems a longshot if Posey indeed wants the farm system to flourish? Do they add a second baseman? A catcher? An outfielder?
And most of all, has the team shown enough to convince Posey it’s immediately fixable? Other executives might offer a hard no — the Giants are 13-22 since Devers arrived — and either take a pass at the deadline or start dumping players. Free agents to-be include Mike Yastrzemski, Wilmer Flores, Dom Smith, Justin Verlander, and top prize Tyler Rogers.
Conversely, Posey keeps talking about unity and continuity and doesn’t favor blowing it up and starting anew. He didn’t take over baseball ops to implement a five-year plan that may or may not pay dividends. He took over to create a roster and culture that enables annual playoff runs and eventual World Series glory.
If he deems that’s improbable in 2025, we could see a mix of buying and selling. Either way, he needs another starting pitcher, whether it’s Miami’s Sandy Alcantara, who’s signed through next season with a 2027 club option, or Pittsburgh’s Mitch Keller, who’s signed through 2028 (his Monday clunker notwithstanding), or Minnesota’s Joe Ryan or Washington’s MacKenzie Gore, both of whom have two more years of club control, or any other number of available arms.
The relief market took a hit Monday when Cleveland closer Emmanuel Clase was placed on leave through August amid a gambling investigation, but plenty of relievers remain available, including Clase’s teammate Cade Smith.
On the hitting side, a perfect fit for the Giants is Cleveland outfielder Steven Kwan, who has two more years before free agency, but all these players come with a hefty price, and the question is how much is Posey willing to surrender.
Like all of Posey’s other firsts as the Giants’ lead executive, the trade deadline promises to be a fascinating development, no matter the outcome.