SF Giants lack of roster churn provides stark contrast between Posey and Zaidi

Roughly six months into Buster Posey's tenure as president of baseball operations, we have gotten a decent sense of how he operates in contrast to his predecessor Farhan Zaidi. Perhaps the biggest difference thus far is the lack of roster churn.

Zaidi's time with the Giants was characterized by a lot of turnover on the roster year after year. He had a penchant for adding players via the waiver wire and quickly plugging them into the lineup. This strategy paid off sometimes but other times it just seemed unnecessary and created a brand of baseball that many fans found unappealing.

Buster Posey is reversing key Farhan Zaidi practice for SF Giants

Posey was brought in to do things differently and so far he has followed through on that. The Giants have not altered their Opening Day roster at all since the team boarded the plane for Cincinnati at the end of March. Part of this is because no one has had to go on the injured list and the team is performing well, but it also speaks to the different perspective Posey brings to the table.

Speaking with Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area recently, Posey addressed the lack of roster moves so far and attributed that partly to the fact that the team clearly has a good chemistry right now and he does not want to mess with that.

This does not mean Posey is going to keep the same 26-man roster for the entire season. Inevitably, guys are going to spend time on the IL or poor performance will dictate that some players need to get sent down in favor of a hot bat in the minors.

However, it is clear that Posey believes there is worth to some amount of consistency on a roster. Not only does this make things easier in a clubhouse, but it is also better for fans so they can become more familiar with all of the players on the team.

There is only one transaction on the team's transaction log for April so far. Compare that to the 23 transactions at this point in April of 2023 and the 13 at this point in April of last year and it is clear things have changed. To be fair, some of these transactions were due to injuries, but some of them were also waiver wire claims or demotions early in the season.

As a former player, Posey understands the value of continuity better than Zaidi ever did. Zaidi did a lot of positive things for the Giants, but it seemed at times that he viewed players as pawns on a board and did not put a ton of stock in things that are unquantifiable like chemistry or morale.

That is clearly different under Posey. We will see how he manages the roster as the season goes on, but early indications suggest that he values a more consistent roster. Players are feeling the difference and fans have felt it too as the Giants have gotten off to a very strong start in 2025.