Buster Posey gets early vindication for his major SF Giants shakeup

SF Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey shook things up in a major way this weekend by trading away catcher Patrick Bailey to the Cleveland Guardians. It was a big bet on the future at catcher as represented by Jesus Rodriguez and Daniel Susac and Posey got some early vindication with Jesus Rodriguez's walk-off single on Sunday and with the performance of the bullpen.

It was a nice Mother's Day win for a team that's been struggling for much of the season and there really wasn't a better guy to get the winning hit than Rodriguez to try and assuage some of the fears about moving on from Bailey.

The decision to demote Ryan Walker also looks smart. It seemed like Walker had run out of leash and the bullpen was not perfect but Ryan Borucki stepped up and the relievers did enough to win the game. Six relievers combined to allow just one earned run so they held down the fort and kept the Giants in the game. This bullpen is still very shaky but at least Posey is showing a willingness to make moves when things are clearly not working.

Posey looks smart (so far) for decision to move on from Bailey, demote Walker

Turning back to the offensive shakeup, after that walk-off hit, which almost wasn't a walk-off thanks to some awful baserunning from Heliot Ramos, Rodriguez is hitting .353/.389/.529 with one home run and three runs batted in. The defense is still very much a question mark and one couldn't help but think about Bailey when Rodriguez made a wild throw into the outfield in the first inning trying to throw a runner out at second base.

Still, Posey moved on from Bailey because he felt that the Giants simply needed to get more offense from the catcher position. It's early, but Susac and Rodriguez have obviously looked a lot better at the plate than Bailey has. For those curious, Bailey went 0-for-3 with a strikeout in his Guardians debut on Sunday as Cleveland lost 5-4.

Rodriguez was far from perfect at the plate on Sunday. He was 1-for-6 and had one of the worst at-bats of any Giant all day in the bottom of the 10th when he struck out in ugly fashion by swinging wildly on two sliders that were well out of the strike zone when a clutch hit would have ended the game. But the 24-year-old rookie has been impressive at the plate for the most part with his opposite-field approach and even hit an opposite-field homer which is no small feat for a right-handed hitter during a night game at Oracle Park.

Giants fans know that Bailey, while being an offensive liability most of the time, had a penchant for coming up in the clutch with San Francisco. He had his fair share of walk-offs over the years so it would not have been a shock if he came up with a clutch hit like Rodriguez on Sunday but it's just as easy to imagine him grounding into an inning-ending double play to prolong the game even further.

We won't know for sure who won or lost this trade for some time and overreacting to a few games would be foolish, but the early returns are positive for the Giants.

Posey made a very big bet and proved once again that he is not afraid to make a move if things are not working. We'll see how the rest of the season plays out, but if the Giants remain under .500 it wouldn't be a shock if he made some more big changes.

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