Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey, seen before a game against the Miami Marlins in April, said of his next move to right the ship of an underperforming team, “I’ll just answer it as: not now. … I don’t know when that is, but not right now.”
Jeff Chiu/Associated Press
DENVER — Buster Posey made one difficult move Friday, reassigning Hector Borg to a minor-league development role and temporarily reinstating Ron Wotus as the San Francisco Giants’ third-base coach as the front office seeks a permanent replacement.
Gauging when Posey, the Giants’ president of baseball operations, might make an even more difficult move or two is the next question. His team entered Friday’s game at Colorado 12 games below .500, 14 games behind the Dodgers in the NL West and last in the majors in runs scored.
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Last year, Posey went into action early, leaping out June 15 to grab Rafael Devers from the Red Sox in the hopes of helping push San Francisco — then neck-and-neck with the Dodgers at the top of the division — into the postseason. His club is in a vastly different situation now and future free agents Luis Arraez and Robbie Ray are likely to be in demand ahead of the Aug. 3 trade deadline. Might he move quickly again?
“I’ll just answer it as: not now,” Posey told the Chronicle on Friday before the Giants’ game at Coors Field. “I don’t know when that is, but not right now.”
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Posey still sees promise in this team, which was projected to be better offensively this season but which entered Friday ranked 25th in homers (49), last in walks (119) and last in stolen bases (14). The pitching staff, mostly good the first month but constantly having to work in high-leverage situations thanks to the lineup’s shortcomings, has faltered this month. It hasn’t helped that the defense has the sixth-most errors in the majors (34).
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“It’s never one thing, anyway,” Posey said. “We need to catch the ball a little bit better. We need to swing the bats a little bit better. We need to attack the strike zone a little bit better. Baserunning, we’ve got to get some aggression on the basepaths as well.”
Some of these things can be addressed, particularly the lapses in defense and on the bases and some of the poor at-bats, especially with men in scoring position.
Posey said he and manager Tony Vitello had just discussed that “there are certain mistakes that are just going to happen. I think the ones we want to try to correct are the ones that you feel like you’re more in your control. But I don’t think you can point to any one thing and say that’s the reason that we’re 22-34.”
There might be one thing: The lack of production from the biggest bats, those of Devers, Willy Adames and Matt Chapman. Devers has lifted his numbers with a strong May, and Adames had four homers in his past nine games entering Friday. Typically, players with good track records wind up at or near their previous numbers by the end of the season, which would signal a massive few months for one or more of those players.
“I have an extreme amount of belief in the guys that are out there, Matt Chapman, Luis Arraez, Rafi Devers, I still think Harrison Bader’s got the potential to get going,” Posey said. “Jung Hoo Lee has his stretches. Heliot Ramos being out hurt, (Casey) Schmitt has been a real added boost for us this year; if he wasn’t playing so well, Bryce Eldridge or Devers would be rotating in and out, so it’s a good problem to have that he’s playing as well.
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“What I try to remind myself is I also saw the same group get extremely hot last year too, so I know it’s in there. I’m hopeful that they get extremely hot and either stay extremely hot or limit the lows, because I know it’s in there. I’ve seen it. These guys’ track records are too good to have played the way that we’ve played.”
For a time, the talk was all about Eldridge not getting at-bats, something that has been less of an issue while Schmitt is filling in for Ramos in left. Despite what it may have looked like during the two weeks Eldridge was playing two or three times a week, or limited to pinch-hit appearances, the rookie remains a priority.
“With Bryce, we’re going to try to get runway for him whether it’s through the DH or a game or two at first base,” Posey said.
Much of the rest of the coaching staff, like Borg, is inexperienced at the big-league level in their current jobs, with no former head pitching coaches or hitting coaches. Infield coach Ron Washington, bench coach Jayce Tingler and temporary third-base coach Wotus are the only ones with experience in head coaching roles (compared to assistant coaches).
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Posey is focused on third-base coaches with previous big-league experience to replace Borg, but with a manager, Vitello, who has no previous pro experience, is there enough experience around him on the staff?
“I think so,” Posey said. “I guess you’d have to ask Tony if he feels like he does. But everybody can have their own opinion on it.”