Buster Posey's defensive answer on SF Giants' closer situation is intellectually dishonest

SF Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey appeared on KNBR on Thursday morning. With the team at 20-30 and things feeling rather hopeless, he had to know he was not going to be getting softball questions.

He most certainly did not as host Brian Murphy peppered him with questions on the poor state of the team. Murphy asked Posey about the team’s closer situation after it became clear in the team’s brutal walk-off loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Tuesday night that they simply do not have a reliable arm to turn to for the final three outs.

Specifically, he asked Posey if he regrets not signing a more established closer in the offseason and Posey gave a very defensive response:

“I guess Murph you probably wanted us to sign Edwin Diaz, then you’d probably ask me why I signed Edwin Diaz because he’s on the IL. Every decision we made you could play arm chair quarterback on it and say it was good or bad. We’ve got some guys in the bullpen doing some really good stuff.”

That’s just an intellectually dishonest take from Posey and he knows it. The options in the offseason were not between hoping that Ryan Walker could turn back into the 2024 version of himself and signing Edwin Diaz to a pricey three-year, $69 million deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Giants could have signed an affordable closer but chose not to

There were other options out there who would have been sensible additions and would have at least given San Francisco a ninth inning arm they could rely upon. They could have signed Robert Suárez who signed a more affordable three-year, $45 million deal with the Atlanta Braves. Suárez sports a ridiculous 0.44 ERA on the season. 

What about veteran Kenley Jansen who has a 3.38 ERA on the season with the Detroit Tigers after signing a one-year, $11 million deal? Heck, why not even Paul Sewald of the Arizona Diamondbacks who got the save against the Giants on Wednesday? He has a 4.15 ERA on the year but has converted 11 of 12 save opportunities and signed a one-year, $1.5 million deal.

Obviously, relievers are a risky breed and a lot of it comes down to luck when signing them in free agency. Plus, it's clear that MLB as a whole is coming to look at closers and save situations much differently now. But the notion that the Giants only had two options is just not fact-based and Posey is clearly trying to save face knowing that the bullpen is not as good as it should be.

He’s right that they have had some relievers pitch really well. Caleb Kilian, Matt Gage, and Keaton Winn have all been great for most of the year but Posey should know better than anyone that it takes someone special to close out games. Whether it’s someone who is insane like Brian Wilson or simply has wicked stuff on the mound like Sergio Romo, you can’t just run out anybody in the ninth inning and hope they get the job done consistently.

The Giants have bigger issues to address right now than the closer situation, but Posey’s defensive response is not a great look especially when the team is struggling this badly and clearly bereft of answers. 

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow