Buster Posey’s arrival toward the end of the 2009 season marked the start of a new era for the San Francisco Giants.
Thirteen years and three World Series titles later, the franchise is headed into a new era with the 34-year-old catcher set to announce his retirement on Thursday, according to The Athletic.
Posey will go down as one of the Giants’ all-time greats with a career that almost certainly will earn him a plaque in Cooperstown and the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Posey was the face of the only franchise ever played with for more than a decade and the anchor to the Giants’ World Series teams. He has plenty of individual hardware as well: Rookie of the Year. National League MVP. Seven-time All-Star. Two-time National League comeback Player of the Year Award winner, including this season.
Posey is coming off one of the most productive seasons of his career after opting to miss all of 2020. He heads into retirement with a slash line of .302/.372/.460 and ended his career with exactly 1,500 hits. He also was as celebrated for his handling of the Giants pitching staff as his hitting prowess.
Here’s a look back at the Giants career of Gerald Dempsey Posey — he got the nickname of “Buster” from his dad, and it stuck.
2008
Posey, junior at Florida State, was voted the top player in college baseball after hitting .463 with 26 home runs and 93 RBI, but to the delight of the Giants, was available when they got to pick at No. 5 on June 5. With Tim Beckham, Pedro Alvarez, Eric Hosmer and Brian Matusz off the board, the Giants took what turned out to be a franchise-defining draft pick. They opened their wallets, too, giving Posey a $6.2 million signing bonus, a record for the franchise at the time.
2009
Posey was invited to Giants camp in the spring and began his pro career with the San Jose Giants. After tearing up the California League (he hit .326 with 95 hits, 13 homers and 58 RBI in 80 games) he was promoted to the Triple-A Fresno Grizzlies. That didn’t last long either. After 35 games he was hitting .321 with the Grizzlies, the Giants promoted their prize prospect.
Posey made his big league debut on Sept. 11, 2009 against the Dodgers, entering the game in the eighth inning for starting catcher Bengie Molina as part of a double switch. He struck out in his first at-bat and didn’t play again until eight days later. He entered the game as a pinch hitter for Eli Whiteside (grounding out to first base) but in his second at-bat of the game lined a single to right off the Dodgers’ Jeff Weaver for his first big league hit.
Posey appeared in seven games in all, four starts, and went 2 for 17 (.118).
2010
Posey opened the season at Fresno and tore up the PCL, batting .349 with six home runs and 32 RBI in 47 games before he was back in the majors. For good. But at first, his role was as the Giants first baseman.
Posey was called up on May 29 and started at first base against the Diamondbacks. He played mostly that position through June — his first career home run came as a first baseman (June 9 off the Reds’ Aaron Harang) — until Molina was traded to the Rangers. Posey took off from there. He drove in six runs against the Brewers on July 7 in the midst of a 10-day stretch where he batted .514 with 19 hits, six home runs, and 13 RBI. He had a 21-game hitting streak in July, barely missing Willie McCovey’s team rookie mark.
In 108 games, Posey batted .305 with 18 home runs, and 67 RBI to win the NL Rookie of the Year, but most importantly, he helped bring a World Series title to San Francisco for the first time. Posey caught every inning of the playoff run and batted .300 with a home run in the World Sereis to help the Giants beat the Rangers in the series, 4 games to 1.
2011
Looking to build off the success of his rookie season, disaster struck on May 25 when Posey fractured his fibula and tore ligaments in his ankle in a home-plate collision with the Marlins’ Scott Cousins. Surgery ended his season after 45 games, and the Giants finished second in the NL West.
2012
Posey was fully recovered from ankle surgery by opening day — he went 2 for 4 against the Diamondbacks — and had arguably his best season ever. He led the NL with a career-high .336 average, was named to the All-Star team for the first time and won the NL MVP award.
He was behind the plate for Matt Cain’s perfect game on June 13 and was a key factor down the stretch in the Giants returning to the playoffs. That was just the start. His grand slam in Game 5 of the NLDS helped seal the Giants improbable series victory after losing the first two games of the series. The ride didn’t stop there. He hit a two-run home run off the Tigers’ Max Scherzer in Game 4 of the World Series to help complete the series sweep for the Giants’ second title in three years.
2013
Posey and the Giants weren’t able to recapture the previous season’s magic. Posey hit .294, but 12 of his 15 home runs came in the first half of the season and the Giants finished third in the West and 10 games under .500.
Posey did make the All-Star team for the second straight season and on July 13 caught Tim Lincecum’s no-hitter against the Padres. Worth noting is that late in spring training Posey signed an eight-year contract extension that kept him with the Giants through this season.
2014
Posey and the Giants were at the top of their game again. Posey bounced back to hit .311 with 22 home runs and 89 RBIs, and finished sixth in the NL MVP voting.
Posey had two hits in the Giants’ win over the Pirates, then hit .389 against the Nationals in the NLDS on the way to the Giants beating the Royals in seven games in the World Series for San Francisco’s third title in five seasons.
2015
The Giants missed the playoffs, finishing second, but Posey had one of his best all-around seasons and was voted to start the All-Star Game. He hit .318 with 19 home runs and 95 RBI (the second-most of his career) and won the Wilson Award as the top defensive catcher in the majors. On June 9 he caught his third no-hitter — rookie Chris Heston’s gem against the Mets.
2016
Voted to start the All-Star Game again, Posey had a solid season at the plate (.288 with 14 home runs and 80 RBI) and won his only Gold Glove Award for his defense. Posey collected the 1000th hit of his career on Sept. 27 on a home run against the Rockies.
The Giants returned to the playoffs, but lost to the Cubs in the NLDS in four games despite Posey’s five hits. It was their last playoff appearance until this season.
2017
The Giants finished in fifth place (their 64-98 record was the worst of the Posey era), but Posey showed no signs of slowing down in his age-30 season. Posey was voted the NL starting catcher for the All-Star Game and hit .320. Posey’s power continued to decrease, he finished with 12, but he homered in three consecutive games Citi Fied in early May and two days later hit a walk-off home run in the 17th inning against the Reds two days.
2018
A hip injury overshadowed Posey’s 10th season in the majors. He was named to the All-Star team, but didn’t participate because of the injury and about six weeks later he scheduled season-ending surgery. In 105 games, Posey had a slash line of .284/359/.382.
2019
Posey was back by opening day, but concerns about his power mounted when he didn’t hit his first homer until April 23 and didn’t hit No. 3 until June 1. Posey ended up hitting seven homers to go with a .257 average and 38 RBI in 114 games and he missed the All-Star Game for the first time since 2014.
2020
In a season truncated and delayed because of COVID-19, Posey on July 10 announced he would not play because of health concerns for the twin baby girls he and his wife, Kristen, ad adopted. Ada and Livvi were premature and had weakened immune systems.
2021
Posey opened what turned out to be his final season by hitting a home run on his first swing since the final game of 2019, and it turned into a season to remember. He was named to the All-Star team and batted over. 300 for the sixth time in his career. His power returned, too, as he hit 18 — his most since 2015. Posey’s resurgence helped get the Giants back into the playoffs, where he homered and caught two shutouts against the Dodgers.
Source: www.mercurynews.com