{"id":143,"date":"2026-05-21T21:41:49","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T21:41:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=143"},"modified":"2026-05-21T21:41:49","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T21:41:49","slug":"buster-posey-defends-sf-giants-plans-for-eldridge-bullpen-in-tense-knbr-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=143","title":{"rendered":"Buster Posey defends SF Giants’ plans for Eldridge, bullpen in tense KNBR interview"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Buster Posey is facing difficult questions as the Giants have struggled mightily over their first two months of his second season as the club\u2019s president of baseball operations.<\/p>\n

Read more South Bay tech company buys foreclosed San Jose office building<\/a><\/p>\n

Posey, the former MVP and World Series-winning catcher, caught some of those queries from an unexpected place on Thursday: KNBR-680, the Giants\u2019 flagship radio station.<\/p>\n

In an interview with Brian Murphy and Markus Boucher, Posey addressed the Giants\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

The upshot is that Posey, 39, is taking things day by day over this 162-game season.<\/p>\n

That was the team president\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re trying to get the 21-year-old in the best spots you can,\u201d Posey said, responding to the notion that the Giants have mishandled Eldridge since calling him up May 4. \u201cHopefully, everybody sees, too, the positive that Casey Schmitt\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for whether the Giants would consider sending Eldridge back to Triple-A Sacramento, Posey said they\u2019d just have to evaluate that option daily.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish I could sit here and tell you, hey guys, we\u2019ve got this mapped out for the next four months,\u201d Posey said of the plan with Eldridge, \u201cbut we just don\u2019t. People get injured or people need a blow here and there.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Some fans have speculated that the Giants\u2019 plan might be to seed a quiet rebuild, citing the callups of Eldridge and catching prospect Jes\u00fas Rodriguez and the trade of Patrick Bailey to make room for Rodriguez and Rule 5 draftee Daniel Susac.<\/p>\n

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).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re 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,\u201d Posey said. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to win games. I don\u2019t think you can look at our roster and say that there\u2019s a quiet rebuild going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more At 76, a former Mormon bishop was arrested on charges of molesting children in Livermore<\/a><\/p>\n

Another difficult area for the Giants this season is the bullpen after another blown save \u2014 their sixth of the season \u2014 in Tuesday\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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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.<\/p>\n

Posey said Giants ownership didn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t regret it,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s my job to sit here and the rest of our front office and say, \u2018Do we think the cost-benefit of signing this guy is worth it?’\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

As for his evaluation of his own work and that of Vitello so far this year, Posey was plenty critical.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we\u2019re going based on wins and losses, not very well,\u201d he said before turning his attention to the Giants\u2019 pipeline, ranked 19th in baseball by MLB.com before the season when Eldridge and Rodriguez were still at Triple-A. \u201cBut I do believe there\u2019s hope with what we\u2019ve got going on in our farm system right now. There\u2019s a lot of exciting players. Hopefully we\u2019re going to add some more here during the draft.<\/p>\n

\u201cBaseball is a fickle thing. Hopefully next time we\u2019re on here, we\u2019re talking a lot about a lot more positive things and I believe that\u2019s a real possibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Danville man convicted of wire fraud, money laundering for defrauding investors of $9.5 million<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SF Giants’ lineup has struggled to get enough batters hot at the right time as they sit second-to-last in NL standings<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":142,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"\nBuster Posey defends SF Giants’ plans for Eldridge, bullpen in tense KNBR interview - Next City Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=143\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Buster Posey defends SF Giants’ plans for Eldridge, bullpen in tense KNBR interview - 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