It was not a new idea. It just was a natural one. Buster Posey would take over the Giants franchise he helped lead to three World Series titles as player? Of course, President Posey was going to happen at some point.
But he had to say yes. He had to be ready to say yes. He had to move back to the Bay Area with his family. His wife, Kristen, and four kids had to sign off. Posey had to feel that the time was right and that he was prepared. Posey had to turn to Giants Chairman Greg Johnson one day — probably during a round at San Francisco Golf Club — and firmly declare that he wanted to do this, that he felt the team needed this, too.
So what was Johnson’s response when this happened a few weeks ago?
“My first reaction was wow,” Johnson told me Tuesday, minutes after the press conference announcing Posey’s coronation as team president. “Because I always joked with him for years that he’ll be doing this. It was probably a little sooner than I anticipated, but when the timing’s right, the timing’s right. You can’t say, ‘In five years I’m going to do this,’ because you may not have the opportunity. So the opportunity was now.”
As Johnson put it during the presser, Posey “asked for the ball.” And when Johnson and the rest of the ownership group heard that from a figure who means this much to the Giants franchise, they had to give it to him.
Posey says he didn’t move back to the Bay Area before this season knowing that he’d soon take over baseball operations for the club. He came back because this is the best place for his family. But it also put him closer to Johnson, somebody Posey connected with in the final years of his playing career, then got to know even better once Posey retired, bought a small percentage of the team, and joined the board of directors.
Over the past few seasons, as Farhan Zaidi’s tenure began to stall out, there were rumbles about Posey’s ascension. And as it became clear this season that Zaidi hadn’t turned things around and might never win over huge swaths of the fanbase, Posey loomed as the Giants’ best answer. In some ways, he was the only answer. If he was ready.
As the losses piled up in 2024 and Posey felt the strain on the ownership group, he got closer to doing this. Nobody plotted it out exactly. Everybody involved with the Giants’ decision-making wanted Zaidi to last at least one more year. But the accumulation of gloom was too much. The moment had come.
“I think just probably watching the season and understanding, listening to Greg and some of the other board members and thinking we might need a change,” Posey told me after the presser about the impetus behind his decision. “Look, honestly, I wish we were sitting here … talking about the playoff team that we are right now. But I am excited to take on this challenge.”
At the moment Posey told Johnson he wanted the president’s job, the Giants hadn’t yet decided to fire Zaidi. But Posey’s declaration was the final piece of necessary information.
“Having Buster ready to go probably accelerated those discussions that we would’ve had [about Zaidi],” Johnson said. “When he moved forward and said, ‘I’m ready to do that,’ that’s what really moved things along.”
Naturally, Posey had prepared. He was famous for the time he spent studying the game as a player. He was a standard-bearer for focus and commitment at all times in the Giants’ clubhouse. And when he decided to tell Johnson he wanted to be president, he had already looked into how former pitcher Chris Young walked into the top baseball spot with the Texas Rangers and quickly won last year’s World Series.
“I actually got to know Chris a little bit when he was working in the commissioner’s office before he took the job with the Rangers,” Posey recalled. “Haven’t spent a ton of time with him, but he’s really close with Nick Hundley, who I’m close with. So it’s been more about just talking to Nick and trying to understand, not even recently, just over the years, just understanding how CY operates and what he values. Plan on having more conversations.”
Posey, who has never held an executive position, announced that Zaid’s general manager, Pete Putila, won’t be a candidate for the GM spot now. Obviously, this is an immensely important role and Posey and Johnson both emphasized that they’ll be searching for a veteran executive. They also noted that senior vice president/assistant GM Jeremy Shelley will be a key part of the new regime.
Posey also repeatedly brought up another familiar name: Brian Sabean, architect of the title teams in 2010, 2012, and 2014, and the guy who drafted Posey in 2008. Sabean, who became a Giants consultant after he was replaced by Zaidi in 2018, has been working in a similar role for the Yankees for the last few years.
Could Sabean be a part of Posey’s new front office? “We texted last night,” Posey said. “I think I need to talk to him and understand [his situation].”
Posey said the Giants will continue to use analytics to make personnel decisions, but it’s clear he will pay more attention to clubhouse chemistry and traditional analysis than Zaidi ever did. That doesn’t mean Posey will be right more often than Zaidi was, but it means Giants fans will understand what he’s seeing and doing far more than they ever understood Zaidi’s methods. They will feel a part of what Posey is doing. The fans will trust it, because they trust Posey.
The players will feel that, too. So will the rest of the Giants’ organization.
“Every day, the more I’m around him — like you saw it when he first came into the league — was a leader from Day 1,” Johnson said. “He has that confidence and presence and [he’s] secure enough to know what he doesn’t know, too.”
Posey was confident enough to sign a relatively brief three-year contract for this role. Of course, how would the rest of the ownership group possibly dismiss Posey after only three seasons? He’s an owner, too, after all. But I think Posey is going into this job feeling he has to prove himself, and that he’ll know it faster than anyone if he’s not right for it.
“The length [of the contract] didn’t make a difference,” Posey said. “I’m honestly just looking at this from … I’ve mentioned compartmentalize. Just really stay in the moment as much as I can. I know this is a unique opportunity. I’m hopeful that I can play a role in bringing back the next great team out there on the field. But ultimately, it’s not my identity, either. There’s things in life that are more important than baseball. I’ve got a loving wife and four loving kids. Whether it’s this role or not this role, life’s pretty good.”
But Posey said yes to this because he believes he’s the right person to do it. Because he desperately wants to see the Giants win another World Series or two.
“We’re in the memory-making business,” Posey said a few times during the presser.
I asked him later, what does that really mean?
“I’ve seen videos during playoff runs for us, where it might’ve been a big moment when there was a hundred people in a bar in San Francisco,” Posey said. “And the TV’s on, and they all go bonkers. That’s a memory. They’re going to remember being in that moment. They’re going to remember who they were with there. When I talk about memories, it’s the relationships that come from moments in the game.”
The Giants owners know that some of the bond between the team and its fans has weakened over the last few years. That’s not all Zaidi’s fault; he did his best. But he just was never interested in the more emotional parts of being the leader of the Giants.
And Posey — from 2010, 2012, 2014 and countless other magic moments — is the personification of how powerful those emotional connections can be. He’s President Posey now because of it. And all he has to do is build a team that can create about a thousand more of those memories.