Posey takes over for Farhan Zaidi, whom the team parted ways with after an 80-82 season. While Zaidi won Executive of the Year after putting together a club that won a franchise-record 107 games in 2021, it was the club’s only postseason appearance in his six years as president of baseball operations.
After a .500 season in 2022 was followed by 79 and 80-win campaigns, the Giants are turning to a team legend.
The seven-time All-Star catcher was the National League Rookie of the Year in 2010 and the MVP in 2012. Posey surprisingly retired after the 2021 season, a year when he hit .308 and launched 18 home runs, leaving a $22M salary on the table. One year later, he’d joined the team’s ownership group.
There were signs that Posey was ready to take on a larger role in the organization. He was already an advisor to Zaidi and team chairman Greg Johnson and a member of the team’s board of directors. When negotiations stalled on an extension for third baseman Matt Chapman in August, it reportedly was Posey who stepped in to close out the deal.
It’s not clear what Posey’s philosophy will be as team president, but the Giants’ three title teams were built around strong starting pitching, quality defense and a young, defensive-minded catcher (like the team’s current backstop, Patrick Bailey). That may bode well for the Giants’ chances to resign Blake Snell, since Zaidi was loath to give out long deals, particularly to pitchers.
There’s also a sense that Posey will be more decisive than Zaidi, who was criticized for his reluctance to make moves at the trade deadline. Zaidi rarely added players midseason, nor did he often sell veterans who were heading into free agency. That middle ground between rebuilding and contending is how the Giants hovered around .500 for four of Zaidi’s last five seasons in charge.
If nothing else, Giants ownership has bought a few more years of patience from their fan base, which soured on Zaidi’s approach in the last few years. Posey is one of the team’s most beloved players of all time, which will get him the benefit of the doubt, at least for a while.
One thing Posey knows well is that no matter what an executive says or what analytics they employ, nothing matters more than winning on the field.
