SAN FRANCISCO — When Buster Posey first took over the baseball operations department a year ago, he added two longtime friends — former Giants GM Bobby Evans and former agent Jeff Berry — to help him navigate the new job. As he begins year two, Posey is turning to former teammates, as well.

The Giants announced on Friday that Curt Casali and Javier Lopez have returned to the organization as advisors to the baseball operations department. The bigger move with that department was a notable promotion. Paul Bien has been promoted to assistant general manager after years as the organization’s vice president of baseball analytics.

Bien joined the Giants in 2012, the middle of a three-year title run that Posey and Lopez were huge parts of. He has had a steady rise through the front office over the past decade and is responsible for overseeing the organization’s analytics department. Bien is instrumental in the player-acquisition process and he has sat in on interviews this offseason as the Giants have filled out their coaching staff. Bien joins Jeremy Shelley as assistant general managers to Posey and GM Zack Minasian.

Lopez has been Mike Krukow’s primary backup on the broadcast team in retirement, but he joined Posey, Minasian, Shelley, Bien and others from the front office at the GM Meetings in Las Vegas last month. The left-hander spent seven seasons in San Francisco, winning three titles and the Willie Mac Award.

Casali backed up Posey in 2021 and spent parts of three seasons with the Giants. The popular catcher is viewed within the industry as a potential future manager, much like Cleveland Guardians manager Stephen Vogt and Texas Rangers executive Nick Hundley, who at one point was a candidate for the job that went to Tony Vitello. Casali played for the Giants in 2024 and spent this past season in the Cincinnati Reds front office.

The additions give the Giants eight advisors to the front office. In addition to Evans, Berry, Casali and Lopez, the Giants have former managers Bruce Bochy and Dusty Baker, longtime coach Ron Wotus and John Barr, the man who drafted Posey.

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