Buster Posey is facing difficult questions as the Giants have struggled mightily over their first two months of his second season as the club’s president of baseball operations.
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Posey, the former MVP and World Series-winning catcher, caught some of those queries from an unexpected place on Thursday: KNBR-680, the Giants’ flagship radio station.
In an interview with Brian Murphy and Markus Boucher, Posey addressed the Giants’ plan with top prospect Bryce Eldridge, their closer-by-committee situation and the job he and new manager Tony Vitello have done this season as the Giants enter Memorial Day weekend 10 games under .500, one game ahead of the NL-worst Colorado Rockies.
The upshot is that Posey, 39, is taking things day by day over this 162-game season.
That was the team president’s response when asked about juggling Eldridge into the lineup after Vitello admitted last week that the Giants would use Eldridge largely as a pinch-hitter, ceding starts to high-salary veterans such as Rafael Devers and Matt Chapman, as well as the hot-hitting Casey Schmitt.
“You’re trying to get the 21-year-old in the best spots you can,” Posey said, responding to the notion that the Giants have mishandled Eldridge since calling him up May 4. “Hopefully, everybody sees, too, the positive that Casey Schmitt’s playing as well as he is. The other guys, I think Bryce was going to originally have some time playing for, are going to be some of our veterans who started to pick up as well.”
As for whether the Giants would consider sending Eldridge back to Triple-A Sacramento, Posey said they’d just have to evaluate that option daily.
“I wish I could sit here and tell you, hey guys, we’ve got this mapped out for the next four months,” Posey said of the plan with Eldridge, “but we just don’t. People get injured or people need a blow here and there.”
Some fans have speculated that the Giants’ plan might be to seed a quiet rebuild, citing the callups of Eldridge and catching prospect Jesús Rodriguez and the trade of Patrick Bailey to make room for Rodriguez and Rule 5 draftee Daniel Susac.
Posey denied that notion, citing a roster that includes long-term deals with Devers (seven years, $199.5 million remaining after 2026), Chapman (four years, $100.7 million remaining), Jung Hoo Lee (three years, $64.25 million remaining) and Willy Adames (five years, $155.7 million remaining).
“We’re trying to win. You bring up those guys (because of) the belief in Susac and what he can do, and Rodriguez and the way they were playing behind the plate,” Posey said. “We’re trying to win games. I don’t think you can look at our roster and say that there’s a quiet rebuild going on.”
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Another difficult area for the Giants this season is the bullpen after another blown save — their sixth of the season — in Tuesday’s walk-off loss to the Diamondbacks. Ryan Walker, who started the season as the closer, was sent to Triple-A earlier this month after struggling to a 6.46 earned-run average in 16 appearances.
The Giants cycled through closers in the second half of 2025 after trading Camilo Doval to the Yankees in a deal that netted Rodriguez, but Posey and the front office did not sign an established late-inning reliever in the offseason.
Posey said Giants ownership didn’t stop him from signing someone for that role, and defended the choice not to sign a closer. He mentioned that after signing a three-year, $69 million deal with the Dodgers, former All-Star reliever Edwin Diaz hit the injured list.
“I don’t regret it,” he said. “It’s my job to sit here and the rest of our front office and say, ‘Do we think the cost-benefit of signing this guy is worth it?’”
To add insult to injury, the Posey interview came within hours of strong performances by players he traded away: Kyle Harrison, now with the Milwaukee Brewers after going to Boston in the Devers deal, struck out 11 Cubs on Wednesday, allowing two hits over seven shutout innings, while Bailey had a key RBI in the ninth inning for the Cleveland Guardians on Wednesday, then homered Thursday afternoon.
Harrison, a De La Salle product, has an ERA of just 1.77 through nine starts with the Brewers after the Red Sox traded him to Milwaukee in February. Bailey’s home run was just his second hit in 18 at-bats for Cleveland after Posey determined it was time to move on from the offensively challenged catcher.
As for his evaluation of his own work and that of Vitello so far this year, Posey was plenty critical.
“If we’re going based on wins and losses, not very well,” he said before turning his attention to the Giants’ pipeline, ranked 19th in baseball by MLB.com before the season when Eldridge and Rodriguez were still at Triple-A. “But I do believe there’s hope with what we’ve got going on in our farm system right now. There’s a lot of exciting players. Hopefully we’re going to add some more here during the draft.
“Baseball is a fickle thing. Hopefully next time we’re on here, we’re talking a lot about a lot more positive things and I believe that’s a real possibility.”
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