Why Buster Posey seems totally fine with SF Giants having more injuries to pitchers

Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic just released a really interesting piece that digs into President of baseball operations Buster Posey’s plans to try to get the most out of the pitching staff in 2027. The team has done some light reshuffling of roles on the coaching staff, but Posey really wants to place emphasis upon getting the most out of the organization's arms even if it risks injury.

The full article is well worth a read if you re able to do so, but one comment from Posey in particular really stood out: “I’ve been very clear that we’ve got to remove that fear and we’ve got to push it to the brink with these guys in their training. You can see it’s part of how the game has changed. Maybe 10 or 15 years ago, there was more value to keeping a guy on the field, and of course, if we could keep every guy on the field, yes, we want to. But we have to push it to the point where you’ve got to be OK if a guy has a setback…”

Posey also went on to say that a guy missing a season due to Tommy John surgery is basically just expected for every pitcher at this point and that the fear around elbow injuries isn’t what it once was. This might seem like a bit of a jarring way to look at things when the Giants had four young pitchers (Hayden Birdsong, Trevor McDonald, Carson Whisenhunt, and Blade Tidwell) undergo elbow surgery in 2026, but that just might be the price of trying to get the most out of young arms.

Giants need to change things to improve going forward

Some may view that as heartless, but he has a good point. Posey pointed to the raw stuff and the sheer difficulty of hitting off some arms pitching right now in the playoffs as an example of why the Giants do need to prioritize milking every drop of potential out of their pitchers.

Now, I don’t think some tweaks in development or strategy are going to have Keaton Winn throwing 103 mile per hour missiles next season like he's Jacob Misiorowski since some of it just comes down to pure, raw talent. That’s why the Giants need to be aggressive in pursuing better arms both in free agency and via trade.

But this isn’t an either/or situation where the Giants have to choose between development or acquiring better talent. They clearly need to do both. But if San Francisco does burn through more arms and lose more pitchers to elbow injuries in the coming years where will that leave them? 

They acquired a lot of young pitching talent in 2026 between the trade deadline and the MLB Draft so maybe the hope is that going for a bulk approach will defend against whatever guys they inevitably end up losing due to injury. 

No matter what, it’s at least good to see that Posey and the Giants are trying to figure out how to improve going forward. After such a bad season they know things have to change so if that means milking every drop of potential and raw stuff out of their pitchers even if it risks injury, that may just be the way you have to operate in the MLB of today. 

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