Buster Posey proving to be groundbreaking executive for Giants

Buster Posey already put plenty of his fingerprints on the San Francisco Giants as a player for 12 seasons. Now, as the organization's president of baseball operations, the former catcher is taking the franchise into unprecedented territory.

With Wednesday's announcement that University of Tennessee coach Tony Vitello will be the next manager of the Giants, Posey continues to show that he doesn't mind shaking things up in San Francisco (or around Major League Baseball) and changing the look of the franchise.

Vitello's entrance into the Giants' clubhouse comes at an interesting time in the Bay Area. It's a move that would have been seen as preposterous on July 1 when then-manager Bob Melvin had his contract option for 2026 put into place. With the Giants surprising baseball at 45-41 at that point, the extension was a bit of an eyebrow-raiser, given that the season hadn't even reached the trade deadline yet.

It's also a move that was panned when the Giants played below .500 the rest of the way, finishing at 81-81 and ultimately costing Melvin his job.

Posey's willingness to bring Vitello on without any MLB experience will be a move that will be graded once the new season kicks in. However, it continues a line of power moves from Posey showing he isn't afraid to try new things to get the Giants back to the top of the National League.

Buster Posey has been aggressive in building the Giants roster

Before the 2024 season, Posey inked shortstop Willy Adames to a seven-year, $182 million deal, representing the largest contract in Giants history (ironically passing the $167 million deal Posey signed to stay in San Francisco in 2013). 

Signing Adames proved that the Giants could indeed land a big free-agent name after missing out on Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge in past pursuits. It also showed that San Francisco was willing to spend to win, with the Adames deal coming not long after third baseman Matt Chapman signed a six-year, $151 million extension in September.

It was also Posey who engineered one of the most shocking trades of last season, landing Rafael Devers from the Boston Red Sox in mid-June. Signed through 2033, Devers joins Adames as the long-term faces of the franchise and hopefully as magnets that will draw other big names to Oracle Park.

"We're excited about adding one of the best hitters in all of Major League Baseball to our lineup," Posey said at the time of the trade. "We're obviously taking on a lot of dollars, but there's a belief that adding a guy like this puts us in a good position to keep winning ballgames, get into the playoffs and try to win a World Series, which is our ultimate goal."

Posey should not only be credited for making the move to acquire Devers, but also having the faith he would fit into the spots where he was needed with the Giants, including 28 games at first base after he refused to play there while with the Red Sox.

Since moving into the team president role on Sept. 30, 2024, Posey has now made three big moves that may have changed the trajectory for the Giants. Only time will tell if they result in San Francisco regaining its place at the top of MLB's mountain of talented teams.