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Buster Posey has beaten the Dodgers before and he’s quite sure that he shouldn’t stop believing he can do it now.
Of course, he’s also fully aware of this moment — it’s not 2010, 2012, 2014, or even 2021, anymore. As president of the Giants, Posey can’t beat the Dodgers’ spending power, their ability to attract superstars, their canny aggression, or their current run of back-to-back World Series titles.
But his point these days, as the Giants enter their second week of spring training in Arizona in Posey’s second season running the show, is that the Dodgers’ way isn’t the only path to championships. And that the 2026 Giants are positioned to find their own way, which feels a little similar to the old ways.
So Posey insisted that it didn’t really faze him when the Dodgers loaded up again last offseason by signing Kyle Tucker for $240 million and Edwin Díaz for $69 million. And it definitely didn’t motivate him to go to Giants ownership (of which he is a member) and ask for an extra $150 million or more to counter the Dodgers’ dynastic reach.
“That wasn’t a thought for me, as far as going toe-to toe with those [moves]; just not the reality of the situation that we’re in,” Posey said on my podcast earlier this week.
“And frankly, I’m not even sure — is that the best way to build a roster long term? I draw on my time as a player, but Brian Sabean and Bobby Evans and their scouting department and amateur department did a great job of adding talent that way, and that was the core of our teams. And then they did a great job supplementing it with some better veteran pieces along the way. …
“I think what makes sports great is that you can go one route and get it done, you can go another route and get it done. I’m looking at the schedule right now on my desk. We won’t know until September whatever [how] it’s going to be play out.”
Here’s what Posey did: He fired Bob Melvin and hired Tony Vitello straight out of Tennessee, he signed moderate free-agent deals with Harrison Bader, Luis Arráez, Adrian Houser, Tyler Mahle, and a few others, and generally made no other significant moves to a roster that went 81-81 last season — the Giants’ fourth consecutive finish at .500 or just below.
And that was all after Posey traded for Rafael Devers and picked up the rest of his enormous contract last June and, before that, signed Willy Adames as a free agent the previous offseason.
If that doesn’t sound like it’s enough to take down Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Freddie Freeman, Tucker, Díaz, and the rest, well, nobody can really argue that.
But can the Giants play more consistently than they did last season, get some boosts from across the roster, and compete with everybody else? Then maybe get on a hot run in the playoffs? Maybe even give the Dodgers a run for their mega-money in a short series?
“I really feel like we’re a group that’s pretty close to playing some really meaningful baseball,” Posey said. “And I hate even saying that, because that sounds like a cop-out in a sense. And I’ve always said, we’re in this to compete to win a World Series. It’s not just to be competitive. …
“I can honestly say I do think we have a group that can compete to win a World Series. I think about last year, and some of the down stretches that we had; we just had a hard time coming out of them. And I think that’s what the better teams are able to do; you can avoid being in those stretches for a long period of time.”
Last season, the whole endeavor was capsized by a 21-40 freefall from June 11 through Aug. 22 that Melvin just couldn’t get straightened out until it had already ruined everything, including his job security.
In all other games, the Giants were 61-40 last season (.603 winning percentage). That doesn’t mean they were anything close to a real 98-win team, but it’s a sign that the 2025 team wasn’t terrible. And if the Giants’ transitionary steps last offseason made them better, at a discount price, there is room to move up the standings.
But to do that, Posey had to take some fairly big risks — Devers’ money goes on nearly forever, Bader was available because he gets hurt so often, and the Giants are counting on young arms to fill out their rotation.
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Posey mentioned that The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal earlier in the day had told him that he never would’ve guessed from Posey’s playing days that he’d be such a risk taker as an executive.
Posey smiled at that, seemed a little surprised that many of us are thinking the same way, then seemed to accept and embrace the conclusion. (As a side note: Posey said he’s currently enjoying Stephen E. Ambrose’s book “Undaunted Courage” about Meriwether Lewis and William Clark’s epic expedition — commissioned by Thomas Jefferson — to the Pacific Ocean.)
“I don’t know if I look at myself necessarily as a risk taker,” Posey said, “but one lens I do look through is this sport is ultimately supposed to be fun, and it is fun taking some I guess we’ll call them perceived chances at times.”
The biggest one: Counting on Vitello, who seemed to unintentionally underline his lack of MLB experience by opening his media session on Monday with barbed commentary about the mostly accurate reporting on the steps leading to his Giants hiring last October. What was the point of this? Oh well.
I spoke to Posey before I heard about or read Vitello’s comments, so we didn’t discuss them on the podcast. But I don’t know Posey could’ve or would’ve offered much, anyway. On the podcast, Posey said that once he talked to Vitello during the interview process and heard from people who knew or had just gotten to know Vitello, it didn’t feel like much of a gamble.
But yeah, it’s still a risk.
“Tony’s been great about it, too,” Posey said. “It’s, like, we don’t know. I mean, we still don’t know, right? We don’t know how things are going to turn out. But I’m confident just in the person and the way that he goes about his work and how he reads people, commands the room, can motivate.”
So what are Posey’s early thoughts on Vitello through the first few days of camp?
“It’s cool to see him get out and kind of mix it up with the players,” Posey said. “He’s bouncing around, whether it’s on the field or in the bullpens, and he’ll get in and take ground balls with pitchers when they’re doing the [pitcher fielding practice] and feed them. He’s hitting fungoes.
“That’s not why you hire a guy, but I think it is an example of him being a little bit different. I don’t know how many other managers are out mixing up with their guys; maybe there are some more.
“But he’s also a guy … he’s a great speaker, so when he’s addressing the team like he has a couple of times already, he has a real gift to be able to hold a room. And I think that’ll serve him well throughout the course of the year, and hopefully as he’s trying to create this unit, this camaraderie that we all know it takes to have a successful winning team.”
Vitello made headlines on Monday by opening his daily conversation with reporters with a “tangent.” | Source: Ash Ponders for The Standard
Here are more highlights from our conversation …
• When asked if he specifically stayed away from huge long-term deals because payroll limitations wouldn’t allow it, Posey suggested that it was partly about making sure the Giants didn’t do anything that screwed up their financial flexibility in the near- and middle-term future.
“I think one thing that that I probably didn’t appreciate as a player, that I have to think about a lot more now, is not just the short-term impact,” Posey said. “But what’s the long-term impact look like, and what might some of these decisions we make, how might they impact, obviously, the first couple of years, but what’s the impact going to be three, four, five, six, seven, and even eight years, whatever it may be down the line?
“And also, giving yourself a little bit of wiggle room to make additions at the trade deadline as well. All of that’s coming into play.”
• Posey clearly is intrigued by Arráez.
“I’ve always enjoyed watching his at bats,” Posey said. “There can be some flamboyancy, I guess, in the batter’s box. It takes a different cast of characters, for sure, to make a great team.
What was it like for Posey as a catcher trying to come up with ways to pitch to somebody like Arráez, who almost never strikes out?
“When I was calling pitches against these guys, I can remember talking to Matt Cain about this type of profile, the hitter,” Posey said. “You almost are just like, ‘You know what? We’re going to set up middle-middle. We’re going to throw a fastball right down the middle. Let him put it in play if he gets a hit, tip your hat and move on.’ …
“And he’s working his tail off defensively already as well. He and [Ron Washington] are out there. Wash has got all the infielders out there working, which is really fun to see. Matt Chapman was kind of reminiscing a little bit with me the other day about his time in Oakland with Wash. And so, feel good that Luis is in his hands, and you know that he’s going to be prepared. I’m confident of that.”
• Even though Bryce Eldridge is still just 21 Posey seems fairly convinced that Eldridge’s powerful left-handed swing will be major-league ready soon.
But Eldridge doesn’t really have a major-league position yet, and if he did, it’d be first base, where the Giants already have Devers.
I asked Posey: Would you be hesitant about starting Eldridge’s career as a full-time designated hitter?
“I don’t think there’s hesitation for me,” Posey said. “I think perfect-case scenario, you’re getting [young players] in the field some and keeping them engaged that way.
“But, you know, David Ortiz made a pretty good career out of just being a DH. So it’s possible.”
Bryce Eldridge is working at first base, the same position where Rafael Devers plays. | Source: Norm Hall/Getty Images
• Posey is already more than a third through his initial three-year deal as president. When he signed it, he made it clear he was happy it was such a short-term contract because he’d know quickly if he could do the job — and whether he would want to keep doing it long term.
While Posey on Monday said there’s no announcement about a contract extension coming ASAP, he said he’s definitely enjoying this job.
“Again, I’ll get cliche: I really am going day-to-day and staying in the moment,” Posey said. “But I am enjoying it.
“I texted my wife earlier and just and relayed that to her just that I feel lucky that I am getting to do something that I enjoy doing and being involved in a game that I’ve loved from the time I was a kid, and now getting to do it in a in a way that I honestly probably never thought that I would.”
• I asked if he and Stanford’s Andrew Luck have been able to get together to talk about the similarities in their situations — great players who retired at their peaks, took some time away, then recently came back to run the organizations that made them famous.
“We caught up recently on the phone, and we were going to try to get together during that Super Bowl week, but were unable to make it happen,” Posey said. “But we have some mutual friends as well that have talked to me quite a bit about Andrew.
“And, yeah, I think there’s some parallels for sure. I think I’m curious to talk to him when we do get to sit down in person; he stopped playing at a young age and I stopped playing at a relatively young age. So, yeah, it’s kind of interesting to see that we’re both back with programs or organizations that mean a lot to us.
“And by all accounts, from people I’ve talked to, I hear he’s doing a wonderful job.”