Buster Posey plans to spend Giants' offseason focused on pitching for 2026 originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
SAN FRANCISCO — Buster Posey hit .302 in the big leagues and won a batting title in his first full season as the Giants’ catcher. Through one year as an executive, his batting average might be even higher.
It’ll take years to get a full view of how the Willy Adames contract will work out, but the first season was a strong overall one. For all of the grumbling about Justin Verlander early in the season, that one-year deal ended up being a positive, too. There were misses on some moves, and the Giants certainly paid for their inactivity with certain position groups, but they also felt really good about the in-season moves for Rafael Devers and Dominic Smith.
Thus far, the Posey front office has seemed to make pretty solid decisions. But the work this offseason will be a bit trickier.
It is generally easier to hit on veteran position players because there’s less injury risk and the year-over-year swings aren’t as dramatic, but this offseason, Posey will be focusing on the other half of the game. Asked about the team’s biggest needs on Thursday’s “Giants Talk” podcast, he said the goal is clear.
“I think our focus is going to be on pitching, to try to fortify our starting staff,” Posey said. “The same goes with the bullpen. I believe that pitching and defense wins, so that’s where we’ll probably start looking this offseason when free agency does happen.”
The offseason will start with a focus on the rotation, and as the Giants learned this year, that push should never really end. Posey felt great about the organization’s depth going into his first season, saying often that the strength of the franchise was young pitching. By August, it was clear that was no longer the case.
The Giants traded Kyle Harrison and watched Jordan Hicks and Hayden Birdsong pitch their way out of the rotation. Landen Roupp became a reliable piece but got hurt. Other young options were inconsistent, and by the end of the season, the Giants had multiple TBAs in their rotation every time through.
“You always hear it: You can never have enough pitching. I feel like we came into the year thinking that we had a nice amount of depth, and then by the end it didn’t feel like we had a lot of depth,” Posey said. “It was definitely a learning experience for me to learn that that old adage — you never can have enough pitching — is definitely true.”
Posey, general manager Zack Minasian and the rest of the front office will have multiple avenues to building depth this offseason. If the past calendar year is any indication, the initial lean will be to go big. Posey talked often last October and November about his desire to get a shortstop upgrade, and he went to the top of the market with Adames. When the lineup needed a boost, he traded for Devers.
The free agent pitching market includes Dylan Cease, Zac Gallen, Merrill Kelly, Framber Valdez and others who have pitched at or near the top of a rotation. There will be the usual array of potential reclamation projects like Walker Buehler, Dustin May and Jon Gray. Other notable names like Shane Bieber and Michael King could be available depending on whether options are picked up this month.
Posey needs two starters, and given that Roupp had an elbow scare during the summer and the Triple-A depth got decimated, he might feel the need to add a third option. When that’s done, he’ll need to rebuild just about an entire bullpen.
Ryan Walker is a good bet to return, although likely not as the closer, and Jose Butto and Spencer Bivens should feel pretty safe, too. Others like Joel Peguero, Tristan Beck and Joey Lucchesi showed flashes. Erik Miller was fully cleared from a health standpoint by the end of September and should be back as the top lefty. But it’s not overstating it to say that the Giants might need about a half-dozen new relief options in camp next spring as they try to sort everything out.
Posey said they first will look internally, and while young starters are never turned into relievers until it’s the last resort, guys like Birdsong, Keaton Winn and Carson Seymour could end up filling out the bullpen. Trevor McDonald could take Roupp’s path, helping out in the bullpen for a year before getting a real shot at the rotation.
The Giants also plan to be active on the minor league free agency front, which is an area where Minasian and assistant GM Jeremy Shelley have had plenty of success over the years. You don’t want to spend big on relievers in free agency, but that’s an option, too.
The Giants currently have 22 pitchers on their 40-man roster, and the vast majority of them are young, under team control and will be back in some role. The oldest of the group, Verlander, is about to hit free agency for a second straight year, and after a huge second half, he will likely be far more appealing to contenders.
Verlander has been coy about what he’s looking for, and he said after his final start that he hasn’t even given it much thought. He admits, though, that the push for 300 wins is still something he’s thinking about, and in that respect, a season filled with poor run support and bullpen collapses might not have left the best taste in his mouth.
Verlander loved the clubhouse, though, and the Giants loved having him as a leader. Posey said they’re “open” to a reunion with Verlander, who likely will be looking for another one-year deal.
“He’s been great. He was a great teammate,” Posey said. “I personally felt like he pitched — even when he was probably receiving a lot of criticism early in the year — I felt like he was still in a place that was putting us in a spot that we could win games.
“He didn’t get a ton of run support and the bullpen gave it up for him a little bit in some of those stretches, but then he really turned it on towards the end of the season. It was pretty remarkable, for a guy that turns 43 in the spring. To be able to go out and compete against guys that some are half his age, it was pretty impressive.”