SAN FRANCISCO -- When the Giants made their first real push for a $150 million MLB free agent and met with Jon Lester in 2014, Buster Posey was in the room. He was there when they met a young Shohei Ohtani in a conference room in Orange County in 2017 and he took a call from Bryce Harper when the superstar was making his decision a year later.
Late in his career, Posey started joking about that lack of success as a recruiter. But that's the role he just signed up for, and the stakes are much higher now that he's the president of baseball operations.
Asked on Tuesday how he'll handle that part of the job, Posey said his goal is just to be honest.
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"All I can give is my honest perspective," he told NBC Sports Bay Area. "I can share my vision and my hopes and expectations for this organization and city and can draw on experience from my own time as a player and how special it is to play here. I know I'm biased, but I do believe that this is one of the premier places to play baseball in all of the world and one of the most beautiful places to do it in."
Posey will have a chance right away to show whether this pitch is as effective as the thousands he called as a big leaguer. The Giants once again will be connected to some of the best free agents on the market, including a player who is currently still one of their employees.
Blake Snell will opt out of his two-year deal after the World Series, but Posey didn't signal much one way or the other when asked about the lefty. He called him one of the premier starting pitchers in the game and noted how dominant he was in the second half.
"He's obviously somebody that's going to be a priority for us to take a hard look at and make a decision as a group," Posey said.
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That group will consist of people who are technically his bosses, but also his equals. Posey has a three-year deal to be president of baseball operations, but this isn't a traditional setup. Farhan Zaidi reported to chairman Greg Johnson and the board of directors, but Posey has been on the board since buying a small stake in ownership and that won't change now that he has taken on a new role.
President of Baseball Operations Buster Posey will have to decide just how much he wants Snell on next year's team. Owner Buster Posey will have to decide what that means for payroll for the rest of the decade, but he won't be alone. Johnson said the Giants "want to make smart decisions" and they have to weigh long-term flexibility with short-term needs.
Snell was part of a free agent class that put the Giants in the luxury tax for the first time since Posey was a player, but Johnson didn't rule out being a repeat offender.
"If we go over, we go over," Johnson said.
What the Giants likely won't do this offseason is repeat one of Zaidi's most frequent moves. He consistently brought in high-quality players on two-year deals with an opt-out. Some, like pitchers Carlos Rodón and Sean Manaea, walked after one year. Ross Stripling and Michael Conforto opted in after disappointing first seasons.
Johnson told NBC Sports Bay Area that he believes the structure of those deals played a part in the Giants lacking an identity, an ongoing issue in recent years. It was hard for fans to embrace players who might only be around a few months.
"I think part of the identity problem is by us trying to be competitive and doing one-and-one deals where you have somebody for a year. They're playing for a contract, they know they're not going to be here probably long-term," Johnson said. "I think that creates a different vibe in the clubhouse with having those kinds of free agents in here that may be a good deal for a year but the problem with (those contracts) is that if they do well, they're gone (and) if they don't, we pay them for another year. I think I'd rather see less of those deals done in the future."
Posey knows the value of continuity. He signed a massive extension after his MVP season in 2012 and was instrumental in helping the Giants lock Matt Chapman into a six-year extension. As the Giants try to add others to their core, Johnson thinks Posey's recent experience as a player "is absolutely going to help."
"It's nice to have somebody that can talk their language and somebody they trust and can talk to them directly," he said.
For all of the nice things said by both sides recently, the Giants have not considered a reunion with Snell to be likely. Perhaps that will change with new leadership, but Posey also saw firsthand how important it was for the Giants to be homegrown. He was teammates with Barry Zito, Johnny Cueto and Jeff Samardzija, all of whom came on massive deals in free agency and struggled to live up to expectations to various degrees.
If the Giants would rather spend on hitting help, outfielder Juan Soto will be available. Zaidi took a lot of heat for striking out on Ohtani, Harper, Aaron Judge and others, but the Giants weren't getting those types before his tenure, either.
On the surface, it would seem Posey will have to walk a fine line as he tries to improve the roster while also dealing with the financial wishes of his fellow owners. But Johnson said he doesn't see complications. He said the board works together on the biggest deals.
"I don't think it matters at all," he said. "He owns a small piece. I don't think that would be a barrier to his thinking in how we would go ahead and build a team."
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