Grading Buster Posey's first offseason in charge of the SF Giants

We are at the point in the year where it is safe to say the offseason is over as spring training games are getting close. What grade did Buster Posey earn in his first season in charge of the SF Giants?

Grading Buster Posey's first offseason in charge of the SF Giants

It was a relatively active beginning to the offseason for Posey. He was immediately announced as Farhan Zaidi's replacement. Posey's first orders of business was to rebuild the front office and coaching staff.

The Giants made several changes in the front office, headlined by promoting Zack Minasian to general manager. Randy Winn was also hired as Vice President of Player Development. Player development is a critical role for an organization that has struggled at it for years. It may be a while before we can comfortably evaluate this hire but Winn is relatively inexperienced in a position that the Giants really need to succeed.

On the coaching staff side, Justin Viele joined the Texas Rangers as a hitting coach and Bryan Price retired. Damon Minor slotted into Viele’s role, whereas J.P. Martinez was promoted to pitching coach. There were other minor moves to the front office and coaching staff as well.

Before we dive into the offseason, the Giants did extend Matt Chapman before the season concluded. Perhaps, that should count toward the offseason activity but it also occurred before Posey was officially in his new position. For a few reasons, I am leaving that out while recognizing that this move helps shape the narrative of the offseason.

Overall grade: C+

The Giants really needed to overhaul the roster in a lot of ways. All expectations were tamed once reports circulated that they were planning to slash payroll. They have been one of the more aggressive teams in baseball in recent offseasons but without the return on investment as they have floated under .500.

Admittedly, building a team through free agency is not only difficult but costly as well. The roster's flaws are directly related to the lack of production that has come through the farm system over the past decade or more. Logan Webb and Patrick Bailey are exceptions to this but there are far too many misses in the draft where other teams found value.

Building a farm system that feeds the major league roster will be Posey's biggest challenge with San Francisco. That will take years to set in place.