SF Giants legend Buster Posey's Hall of Fame case just got much stronger

SF Giants legend Buster Posey has a pretty good argument to make the Hall of Fame. He was an N.L. Rookie of the Year, N.L. MVP, 3-time World Series champion, 7-time All-Star, Gold Glove winner, and 5-time Silver Slugger winner. But his future Hall of Fame candidacy just received a boost.

Longtime Minnesota Twins catcher Joe Mauer was among three players elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. He was a great catcher in his own right, and his profile is comparable to Posey's on several fronts.

SF Giants legend Buster Posey's Hall of Fame case just got much stronger

In Mauer's career, he was an MVP in 2009, 6-time All-Star, 3-time Gold Glove winner, 5-time Silver Slugger winner, and 3-time batting title champ. His career batting average was .306 and he had 143 career home runs as well as a career bWAR of 55.2.

Buster ended his legendary career with a batting average of .302 with 158 home runs and a bWAR of 44.8. However, if you are going by Fangraphs, Posey was worth 57.6 fWAR compared to Mauer's 53.0 fWAR, so a slight edge for the San Francisco legend.

Mauer did have more longevity in his career, playing for 15 seasons compared to Posey's 12 seasons. The Hall of Fame voters will likely factor in the fact that injuries and the pandemic played a role in limiting Posey's potential. And, it bears mentioning that Mauer played first base for the last few years of his career. Hall of Fame voters tend to put a lot of weight into longevity, but both catchers accomplished so much on the baseball field even if they did not play 20 years each.

Additionally, Mauer and Posey are similar in that they both went about the game in a professional, noncontroversial manner. They were steady rocks and leaders for their teams who did not showboat or draw attention to themselves, but instead went about their business quietly and to a very high level.

For whatever it's worth, Hall of Fame voters likely take factors like that into account. The lack of controversy could certainly help Posey as it might have Mauer. The numbers and accolades speak for themselves, but both catchers made an outsized impact for their organizations and communities. Every little bit helps, but Posey's on-field résumé speaks for itself as it did Mauer.

However, Hall of Fame voters should also feel like they owe Giants fans for not allowing Barry Bonds into Cooperstown at this point. That could be an article in and of itself, but Giants fans deserve to have Posey in the Hall of Fame for everything that he did in his career. We can only hope that voters feel the same way in a few years.

In the meantime, we would like to congratulate Mauer, Adrián Beltré, and Todd Helton for being elected to the Hall of Fame. All three players very much deserved the recognition.