Will Buster Posey dictate lineups for the SF Giants in 2025?

The SF Giants have hired franchise legend Buster Posey as their president of baseball operations. We do not yet know what kind of leader he will be in the role, but one key signal would be whether he dictates lineups from the front office.

Who writes lineups for the Giants has become a bit of a talking point recently in the wake of Farhan Zaidi's firing. Another franchise legend, Will Clark, recently went off about analytics in the Giants organization. In those incendiary remarks, he alleged that Zaidi would dictate the lineups from the front office. Clark said that manager Bob Melvin would want a certain player in the lineup but Zaidi would want someone else and that Zaidi's voice won out over Melvin's.

Buster Posey may cede lineup control to Bob Melvin for SF Giants

That is what Clark believes was the case, but Giants beat writer Andrew Baggarly recently touched on this lineup debacle in his recent mailbag article in The Athletic (subscription required). Here is what Baggarly had to say about this:

"I know there’s been a lot of chatter recently about Melvin not having the authority to write the lineup. This is the most accurate way to characterize it: Melvin knew that he couldn’t pick every battle, and because it was his first year in the organization, he probably conceded more to the analysts than he otherwise might have. So I’d expect a little more assertiveness in Year 2. Posey certainly expressed confidence in continuing with Melvin on the bench."

That is not exactly an endorsement of Clark's claims but it does not disprove them either. It definitely seems like there was a good amount of input from the front office on lineup construction under Zaidi.

What does this mean for lineup construction going forward under Posey? Baggarly says that Melvin may be more assertive in his second year as manager and it would not be surprising at all if Posey ceded more control to Melvin. It seems clear that they have a mutual respect for each other and, as a former player, Posey likely agrees with Clark that a manager has their finger on the pulse of a clubhouse in ways that numbers do not always capture.

Posey does not seem like the type to be a micromanager of the lineup or rotation. He will certainly have his thoughts about what is right and should share those thoughts with Melvin but should not dictate from above.

We will see how this transpires, but it would not be at all surprising to see Posey defer more to Melvin when it comes to lineup construction in 2025.