It was not exactly The Shot Heard 'Round the World, but it might as well have been. It was late afternoon on Father's Day when the San Francisco Giants made potentially a franchise-altering move in an attempt to close the gap on the arch rival Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West. By dealing for Rafael Devers in a shocking trade with the Boston Red Sox, it is abundantly clear that Buster Posey fears no one.
The future Hall of Fame backstop turned his attention to running the Giants' front office this past offseason. He has been part of it the last few years, but is now the name of note since taking over for Farhan Zaidi as president of baseball operations. While the Giants had a strong 2021 MLB season, it has been a lot of forgettable baseball in the extended wake of their dynastic run over the sport from 2010 to 2014.
There have been reasons why this is the case that we will not get into, but I would argue the Giants had been operating out of fear under previous leadership. Posey may not have had the longest playing career out of Florida State, but he was the straw that stirred the drink during the World Series runs in the early 2010s. He knows what winning big in San Francisco looks like, while Zaidi did not.
It only took a few months, but the first big bang of the Posey front office shocked and awed all of us.
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Buster Posey getting Rafael Devers to San Francisco Giants speaks loudly
Optically, this trade was a total jaw-dropper. In time, we will be able to tell who the real winners and losers of it are, but for now, we have to take San Francisco seriously and we can forget all about Boston. This is twice in the last decade where the Red Sox have traded a generational star in the midst of his prime to an NL West team. Fenway Sports Group is not holding its side of the bargain.
As for San Francisco, the long-timid Giants have decided to stop dipping their toes into the shallow end of the pool in favor of diving head-first into the deep end off the high dive. This too was a factor in why this trade was so shocking: The Giants seem to have gotten to a point where enough is enough is enough. Unfortunately, the Red Sox and their fan base will have to make do with corporate ownership.
I look at this situation and am beginning to wonder if we are really about to see Posey thrive in his second act in Major League Baseball. His baseball savvy was always off the charts when he played; for as good as he was in his prime, I always kind of felt like he was destined to do something greater. Maybe this is it? Devers is a name that was once thought to be unmovable, but here we are in June.
It will be interesting to see how the other dominoes fall, but what a big move for Posey and the Giants!