Buster Posey can still try to convince SF Giants ownership to spend big on starter

The SF Giants are looking to add starting pitchers but for some time now it has seemed like adding a major starting pitcher would be impossible through free agency. Buster Posey opened the door slightly to that possibility, though.

San Francisco's president of baseball operations is at the Winter Meetings in Orlando right now as teams are looking to make deals and made some comments that suggest he could potentially get ownership on board with a big contract.

Posey leaves door slightly ajar for SF Giants to add major arm

John Shea in the San Francisco Standard reported that Posey said the following: "I think as much as anything, Greg has shown that if we come to him and feel strongly about a certain player, he’ll at least listen on it. Every team has to operate within a certain set of parameters, and that’s part of it. Greg and the ownership group didn’t blink — well, I shouldn’t say they didn’t blink — when we brought the Devers deal to them, but obviously they pushed it through for us."

Posey is right that ownership has been willing to give the go-ahead on some big deals like the ones for Willy Adames last offseason and the big trade for Rafael Devers over the summer. Posey does have an ownership stake in the Giants so perhaps he is uniquely positioned to win over ownership if there is reluctance on a major contract.

Jon Morosi reported recently that the Giants are involved in talks on some upper-tier starting pitchers. This seems to go against other reports that the Giants are not looking to spend big on a premier starter, but maybe Posey and the front office are simply doing their due diligence.

Still, it would probably take a special set of circumstances for the Giants to sign one of the top starting pitchers available. Giants chairman Greg Johnson has been very forthcoming about his reluctance to commit a lot of money to a starting pitcher even though the Giants have two gaping holes in the rotation.

The trade route is still a possibility for the Giants. Maybe they could acquire a solid starter who has not already signed a long-term, expensive deal. Maybe someone like MacKenzie Gore of the Washington Nationals would make sense as a trade target.

But Posey is at least leaving open the door to the possibility that ownership would get on board with a larger deal. We will see if that materializes in the form of a large contract but until then it seems like a deal like that is still fairly unlikely.