Kurtenbach: Buster Posey must prove himself this SF Giants offseason

SAN FRANCISCO — A year ago Tuesday, Buster Posey took the wheel of the Giants. It was quite a moment: The favorite son and the face of the dynasty, back in the Bay to save the organization and that faded black-and-orange tradition he helped build.

So, a year later, what have we actually seen change?

Not much, if we’re being honest.

The Giants are still a thoroughly .500 outfit, staring up at the blinding lights of the Dodgers and the perpetually contending Padres.

Yeah, they snagged Rafael Devers and Willy Adames— that’s cool —but the core foundation of this club, much like the perpetually under-construction area around Oracle Park, is still a work in progress.

Hell, they don’t even have a manager right now.

Posey’s first year was always going to be a feeling-out period. That’s understandable: He took over as the most important dude in a major baseball operation with zero practical front-office experience. That’s a tough ask, and he rightly received deference.

But that grace period is over. Year 2 is a different beast.

The winter of 2025-26 is officially the Buster Posey Offseason. New manager. New coaches. New players. And, if he nails it, a new direction for a club that desperately needs one.

Giants fans have faith — Posey earned that from them with his Hall of Fame career with talismanic powers that brought three rings in five years. It’s easy to assume he can push some beans, make some calls, and figure this baseball operations thing out.

And to his credit, Posey did nothing in Year 1 to disqualify himself from the gig.

But the steady hand now in charge had a team that was anything but steady in 2025.

If these Giants are supposed to be a reflection — an extension, even — of Posey, they had a funny way of showing it this season. And he has a lot of ground to cover to change that narrative before the first pitch of the 2026 season.

Step 1 is finding the right manager. It’s a good market for that — I’ve heard a dozen names, and I like what I hear about 11 of them.

The one name I didn’t like was the one everybody was talking about: Bruce Bochy, who was just ousted by the Rangers.

Posey effectively and smartly poured a gallon of cold water on the idea of a reunion on Wednesday.

“I talked to Boch a couple days ago. I don’t even know what his plans are, but the way things are coming into picture in my mind with where we want to go next, I don’t see us going that way,” Posey said.

Bochy’s a legend, and he can probably still help a team from the dugout in 2026. But he’s not the guy for this team.

Posey’s swift dismissal of what would have been catnip for sports talk radio and casual fans might prove to be a real delineation point for the franchise.

The term “Forever Giant” has been a punchline for nearly a decade in this area.

But the era of nostalgia for the Giants? That’s over.

That’s different. That’s positive. That’s growth from Posey, who, it’s easy to presume might have been tempted by an easy, feel-good fix had it been available last year (after all, he did keep Bob Melvin without much consideration for the alternative).

Posey may not demand outright say over the team’s coaching staff, but he said Wednesday that because his feet are wet in his role, he will have significant input in its construction. The new manager won’t inherit a crew; they’ll be part of the process, but they won’t have unilateral control.

That’s also growth. Posey is finally throwing around his weight a bit, and that’s a great thing for an organization that has desperately needed a good kick in the backside.

Now, the money question: Will Posey toss around the cash, too?

That’s the kind of growth the Giants — amid an arduous, painful process of trying to build up their farm system — really need.

San Francisco has added roughly $580 million in long-term deals over the last 13 months (Posey finalized Matt Chapman’s contract in September 2024), but there are still glaring holes: second base, a corner outfield spot, and a whole lot of pitching depth that needs bolstering.

The Giants were 14th in MLB — and fourth in the NL West — in payroll this past season, paying out about half of what the Dodgers did in 2025, per RosterResource.

“They’re committed,” Posey, a part-owner of the Giants, said of ownership’s openness to expanding payroll for 2026 and beyond.

We’ll see how committed they are in short order. Anyone can talk the game; writing the check is the hard part.

And we’ll find out just how good Buster Posey is at his not-so-good gig around the same time we learn about ownership.

There are reasons to feel good about what’s to come. There are reasons to be skeptical. But Year 2 will remove the ambiguous nature of it all.

The Giants are now fully Buster Posey’s team. What that means will be defined by what he does this offseason – and by how much later his season-ending news conference is next year.