It wasn’t easy for first-year Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey to trade outfielder Mike Yastrzemski, reliever Tyler Rogers and closer Camilo Doval before Thursday’s 2025 MLB trade deadline.

The trio of former San Francisco players on the move all were teammates of Posey’s and individuals the executive considers friends.

In appearing on “Giants Talk” with NBC Sports Bay Area’s Alex Pavlovic and Laura Britt, Posey explained how his relationships within the organization impacted his approach to the deadline.

“I think these guys know first and foremost — they know I care about them,” Posey told Pavlovic and Britt. “But they also know I have a job to do and a responsibility in the Giants organization to try to do what I think is best and right for the organization.”

San Francisco entered the deadline in no man’s land, putting Posey in an extra-difficult position.

The Giants are on a six-game losing streak and have lost 12 of their last 14. They look like a shell of the team in June that had just added three-time MLB All-Star slugger Rafael Devers while in the thick of the NL West race with the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres.

Now, Posey had no choice but to make San Francisco somewhat of a deadline seller, saying goodbye to important people in his 38-year-old life.

“They know there’s nothing malicious; unfortunately, it is part of the business,” Posey told Pavlovic and Britt. “I had good conversations with Rog, with Yaz, Doval, [and] thanked them for all their hard work and effort that goes into being able to be on a major-league baseball field.”

Rogers and Yastrzemski spent seven years as Giants, and Doval five. Posey not only didn’t enjoy trading his friends but also dreaded uprooting three Bay Area families.

“It’s not lost on me either, the ramifications for their families — for their wives, for their kids — to make this change in the middle of the year,” Posey told Pavlovic and Britt. “I think sometimes that part of a baseball player’s life probably gets pushed to the side. 

“But that’s a really big deal, and that’s not lost on me.”

Baseball is a rough business. And Posey now is experiencing the game in ways his 12-year playing career couldn’t.

But instead of running from tough conversations, Posey is embracing them, which is why Yastrzemski, Rogers and Doval — three of Posey’s friends — are elsewhere.

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