In new role, former catcher Buster Posey plans to bring Giants back to respectability, winning

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — In recent weeks and months, Buster Posey began to ponder the possibility of taking on something he insisted he'd never do in joining the baseball operations department for the Giants.

The star catcher said he wouldn't do it upon retiring three years ago. Yet Posey ultimately dearly missed being part of a team.

Long the face of a franchise for San Francisco with three World Series titles to his name, Posey will now be calling the shots on what the club is going to look like going forward.

The 37-year-old retired catcher was introduced as president of baseball operations on Tuesday following the dismissal of Farhan Zaidi a day earlier.

“As far as general philosophy as many of you know me a lot of my basic principles are pretty simple,” Posey said. “I want us to be known as a team that’s the ultimate prepared team, one that’s fundamentals are held at a really high standard and ultimately this is all about the players.”

Posey's first order of business will be hiring a general manager, as Pete Putila won't return in that role but the plan is for him to take on different duties. Posey also noted his admiration for manager Bob Melvin, but that his contract status beyond the 2025 season isn't an immediate top priority.

“It’s Buster Posey, he’s the Giants, that’s a big deal,” Melvin said. "When somebody like Buster asks for the ball you give it to him.”

Melvin figures the Giants are likely to be “probably a little bit more well-rounded team” than the group he guided in his first season as skipper after leaving the San Diego Padres. San Francisco, which won a franchise-record 107 games and the NL West in Posey's final season of 2021, wound up 80-82 with one more victory than in Gape Kapler's last year of 2023.

All-Star pitcher Logan Webb can't wait to see Posey regularly back in his element.

“Buster is one of those guys that makes everyone in the room perk up when he was in the room and you hear his voice,” Webb said in a text message. “I was lucky enough to play with him and see what he brought into the clubhouse as a player each and every day. Now he gets to truly mold a team the way he thinks baseball should look and how it should be played and I’m excited for that. I think it’s a very good thing for the Giants moving forward.”

Posey “has a three-year deal with no contingencies or anything,” according to Giants Chairman Greg Johnson. The seven-time All-Star also will remain on the ownership board even given his new position with Johnson noting that whenever there’s a conflict, someone just steps out of a meeting when necessary.

Another order of business will be bringing back left-hander and two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell, who in March received a $62 million, two-year contract with an opt out. He overcame a slow start and injuries to go 5-3 with a 3.12 ERA over 20 starts.

“Blake's one of the premier starting pitchers in the big leagues, has been for a while," Posey said. “He’s obviously somebody that's going to be a priority for us to take a hard look at and make a decision as a group.”

Posey was instrumental in helping finalize Gold Glove third baseman Matt Chapman's $151 million, six-year contract early last month that keeps him with the Giants from 2025-30 without going through free agency.

In taking this job, Posey needed the support of wife Kristen as the couple have four children. They moved back to the Bay Area following a stay in Posey's native Georgia after his playing career ended, but never with this plan in mind.

“I think she could just tell how excited I was about this opportunity,” he said.

Posey was the Giants' fifth overall pick in the first round of the 2008 draft and earned 2010 NL Rookie of the Year honors before being named 2012 NL MVP as San Francisco won the second of its three every-other-year World Series titles.

He also is working to complete his degree in social science from Florida State via online courses and has a semester remaining.

“I'm chipping away at it,” he said.

By building a strong and experienced staff around him Posey hopes to empower everyone in the organization from the lower minor-league levels to the very top without looking over shoulders of those who work for him.

Posey stressed how baseball connects generations of family members and strangers alike while acknowledging the game's entertainment value.

"We’re in a memory-making business," he said.

Posey envisions a blend of both scouting and analytics for the Giants' front office.

“Most definitely going to use analytics, analytics are here and they're here to stay, and it would be a mistake to say that you're not going to use that information.”

Johnson said he and Posey will find others to complement Posey's skill set and that the former first-round draft pick asked for the chance to be more hands on in building the club — “it was really Buster's desire to be accountable 100% for the baseball and that spoke a lot to me.”

“This certainly is a momentous day for the Giants organization,” Johnson said. “... We all know Buster as the player, all the tremendous memories that we had with him in leading us to three World Series, the Hall of Fame, MVP career. But those aren't the reasons that we're here today. I think for me and for the board what we have observed with Buster in working with him over the last three years is competitive fire he has to win, it didn't end when he took his jersey off, it's as strong today as ever.”

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB

Janie Mccauley, The Associated Press