How Buster Posey can save his Giants front office reputation in 4 sweeping decisions

Buster Posey's place in San Francisco Giants history has been secure for about a decade now. He's the best catcher in the history of one of the sport's most storied franchises and the best player a whole generation of fans have ever seen, an NL MVP and three-time World Series champion; that stuff doesn't wash away so easily.

But man, has he been trying lately. Posey took over the lead executive role in San Francisco determined to put an end to the mediocrity that had befallen his former team in the wake of his retirement. All he's done in the 18 months since, though, is spend more money for the same result — and if the 2026 season so far is any indication, things are only getting worse.

Posey will always be an inner-circle Giant, and it's going to take a lot for fans to turn on him. Right now, though, it's not an exaggeration to say that his reputation as an executive is on the line. How can he get this franchise back on the right track? These four steps would be a great place to start.

1. Fire Tony Vitello

Look, I don't mean to pile on unnecessarily here, or to suggest that Vitello is without merit as a manager. You don't reach this level without knowing that you're doing, and his track record in college — including a national title and two other College World Series appearances at Tennessee — speaks for itself. Vitello has accomplished a lot in his career, and he doesn't deserve to be treated like a joke.

All that being said ... college is not the Majors, and you sure make it hard when you're name-dropping Kanye in your media appearances and publicly suggesting that your players were simply too emotional to perform at their best. Maybe Vitello will learn and grow as a big-league manager, but it's clear that he's not remotely there yet, and the Giants need someone manifestly more serious in the dugout moving forward. The culture is among the many things that need to change in San Francisco.

2. Do whatever necessary to get off of the Rafael Devers contract

If you have to eat some of the money, fine. If you have to attach a prospect or two, well, so be it. Whatever you have to do to avoid paying Rafael Devers upwards of $28 million a year through his age-36 season, that's what you do — short of mortgaging the future entirely.

Devers' contract already looks to be underwater, and that's while he's still ostensibly in his athletic prime. It's only going to get worse from here for a player without any real ancillary value anyway, the consequences of which will be catastrophic from a payroll and team-building perspective. You're not getting anything of value in return for him, but you at least have a (potentially slim, but still) chance of moving on while he's still in his 20s. That window will slam shut for good in a year or two, at which point it'll be too late — and your books will be clogged up for the better part of the next decade.

Will selling Devers for pennies on the dollar hurt? Of course. But it's not like this team is going anywhere with him in the fold. It's time to start from scratch here, and that's a lot easier to do when you don't have a $30 million albatross weighing you down.

3. Crush another trade deadline fire sale

Lord knows there's plenty to criticize about the start to Posey's front-office tenure, but one thing you have to give him credit for is his approach to last year's trade deadline. The Giants offloaded relievers Tyler Rogers and Camilo Doval and outfielder Mike Yastrzemski, and all three moves yielded at least one piece who could be a meaningful part of the team's future (reliever Blade Tidwell, catcher Jesus Rodriguez and pitching prospect Yunior Marte foremost among them). Getting that sort of value in return for a hardly overwhelming group of trade assets is a nice piece of work.

Now, can he do it again? Even if the Giants decided to try and cut bait with Devers or other expensive veterans like Willy Adames and Matt Chapman, fans shouldn't expect much in return. But there are some genuinely enticing players on this team that contenders would kill to have for the stretch run, from lefty Robbie Ray to infielder Luis Arraez (no, really!) to even lesser arms like Tyler Mahle or Adrian Houser. None of those names have a place in San Francisco moving forward, and if Posey can hit on the returns, it would give one more shot in the arm to a rapidly improving farm system.

4. Be willing to embrace an actual rebuild

Of course, while that farm system has a lot of talent — and could well acquire more in the months to come — it's still very young. With top prospect Bryce Eldridge now back in the Majors (hopefully for good this time), most of the Giants' prospects of note are in A-ball and likely won't be ready to impact the big-league team until 2028 at the earliest.

That's the timeline on which San Francisco should be operating right now. From the moment Posey took over this job, the mandate was clear: After years of mediocrity under Farhan Zaidi, the Giants were hell-bent on becoming relevant again as quickly as possible. But that urgency led to some very short-sighted mistakes, handing out huge money to players who couldn't live up to it and sacrificing future flexibility for a team that was simply never all that talented.

It didn't work, and as the first era of Posey's tenure comes to a close, it's time to start from scratch. No more quick fixes, no more half-measures; San Francisco should be focused on contending not in 2027 but two, three and four years down the line, putting a foundation in place so that they can hit the ground running once the kids arrive.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow