SAN FRANCISCO — For years, Buster Posey has been part of the recruiting process for big-time free agents. He met with Jon Lester a few weeks before the lefty signed with the Cubs, and last season he was part of the contingent that flew to Los Angeles to woo Shohei Ohtani.
Posey was not part of the small group that met with Bryce Harper this week, and he said he has not done any recruiting on his own.
“I really haven’t,” he said, “Maybe it is superstition, because every time I seem to reach out, they go somewhere else.”
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Still, there are other ways to make your feelings known outside of meetings and text messages. Posey did Friday when asked about Harper for the first time.
“Yeah,” he said quickly. “Sign him up."
Posey is generally not one to make waves, but it was notable that he retweeted a Bob Nightengale tweet earlier this week complaining about Adam Jones’ ongoing status as a free agent. The two were part of Team USA during the last World Baseball Classic and Posey has played on All-Star teams with Harper.
When discussing free agency Friday, Posey made it clear that he would like additions. He turns 32 this spring, after all.
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“What team out there wouldn’t want a Bryce Harper, a Manny Machado, or a lot of the free agents out there?” Posey said. “As players, from the time you were five years old, you aspire to play against the best competition, whether it’s in your Little League game, high school, college, and the big league level. I think, as a fan myself, and fans that come to the game or watch on TV, I want when the Giants are playing X, Y or Z, fans to say, ‘You know what? We’re going to get the best competition. We know we’re going to get to see a great game tonight.’”
“We’ve got to figure out a way that each game, fans have the feeling that the competition is at its highest."
Posey was asked often about free agency on Friday. He’s one of the biggest stars in the game, and as players begin to prepare for the next round of collective bargaining, you can bet that guys like Posey will make their voices heard. The players want change, but they’ll have to wait.
For now, Posey hopes he won’t have to wait to see changes to his current roster.
There has been no Andrew McCutchen this winter, or Evan Longoria. Another Johnny Cueto has not walked through that clubhouse door. The group that gathered Friday morning at AT&T Park was just about exactly the same as the one that walked out at the end of the 2018 season. Thus far, the front office has guaranteed only about $10 million to free agents.
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Perhaps Harper won’t be the addition. But Posey hopes to see one of some sort.
“I’ve always felt very fortunate to be a part of an organization that tries to put a team on the field that has a chance to make the playoffs, to just get in and have that chance to compete in October,” he said. “I sure hope that’s still the case. That’s all I can hope for is that that still is the case.”
