New Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey indeed played a significant role in San Francisco signing third baseman Matt Chapman to a six-year, $151 million contract extension at the beginning of September.
While there were differing reports on how involved Posey was in getting the deal across the finish line, Giants chairman Greg Johnson spoke to NBC Sports Bay Area's Alex Pavlovic on Tuesday and confirmed that the team's new executive stepped in when Chapman's displeasure with the pace of negotiations became evident.
"I think it just goes back to what I talked about when you're a player and have the trust and respect of other players, it's nice to have somebody that can talk their language, somebody they trust talk to them directly," Johnson told Pavlovic shortly after Posey's introductory press conference at Oracle Park. "At the end of the day, we kept hearing that Chappy was frustrated nothing was getting done and yet we weren't getting any type of response from the agent's back and forth with Farhan. And that's really were Buster just reached out and said 'Hey, let's get together and talk.' And that's how things moved along. We did it direct."
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Greg Johnson spoke to @PavlovicNBCS about Posey's involvement in Matt Chapman's contract negotiations 👀 pic.twitter.com/fSaFc6xj1X
— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) October 1, 2024
After Chapman signed his Giants contract extension, The Athletic's Andrew Baggarly reported on Sept. 15, citing sources, that ownership felt compelled to step in and had Posey take over negotiations from now-former president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi.
Two days later, a source familiar with the negotiations told NBC Sports Bay Area that Zaidi and Boras negotiated terms of Chapman's contract, disputing The Athletic's characterization of the level of Posey's involvement.
That same day, The San Francisco Chronicle's Susan Slusser and John Shea similarly reported that it was Zaidi, not Posey, who ultimately got the Chapman deal done with Boras.
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But as events played out this week, with the Giants firing Zaidi on Monday and immediately replacing him with Posey, along with Johnson's comments on Tuesday, it's pretty clear what actually happened in order to lock up Chapman through the 2030 MLB season.
Posey, who also is a Giants board member, now will be tasked with leading all contract negotiations for at least the next three years.
There can be no debate over Posey's role moving forward.