Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey met with the media on Tuesday afternoon. He predictably expressed disappointment with San Francisco’s place 15 games under .500 while alluding to an expected deadline sale.
“I think we’ll leave all options on the table,” Posey said (links via John Shea of The San Francisco Standard and Susan Slusser of The San Francisco Chronicle). “The way things are trending now, I’d say that we’ve got to remain open to seeing what best ways we can try to improve the club.”
Despite that, Posey seemingly wasn’t interested in hearing other teams out on his ace. Asked whether they’d consider trading Logan Webb, Posey simply replied “no.” Webb is signed through 2028 and has been arguably MLB’s best pitcher in June, rebounding from a shaky start to the season that included a three-week injured list stint for knee bursitis.
Posey’s comments align with a recent column from Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, who reported that Webb would likely be off the table even as the front office prepared to sell. Impending free agents Luis Arraez, Robbie Ray and Tyler Mahle will all be available. They’ll need to pay down a portion of Ray’s $25MM salary and might have a hard time finding a taker for Mahle. Arraez, however, could be the best rental position player who changes hands this summer.
San Francisco is open to shedding the long-term commitments to Rafael Devers, Matt Chapman, and Willy Adames. Those are all above market value contracts, though, and they’d need to eat a significant portion of the Devers and Adames deals. Chapman, who is making $25MM this season and signed for $100MM from 2027-30, could get more attention from other clubs. Adames and Chapman also have full no-trade clauses in their respective deals.
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Chapman, a Southern California native who has spent most of his career in the Bay Area, told Evan Webeck of The California Post last week that he hadn’t given the no-trade clause any thought. Chapman said he hadn’t heard anything from Posey about the possibility of a trade. Posey confirmed as much, telling reporters he hasn’t broached the subject with either veteran infielder.
Devers doesn’t have any no-trade protection, but he’s owed $211MM over seven years after this one. His .238/.302/.433 batting line would be his worst since his first full big league season in 2018. The three-time All-Star found himself at the center of controversy on Sunday when he attempted to wave off pinch-runner Jonah Cox in the ninth inning. Devers eventually ended up leaving the game and dodged a pat on the back from bench coach Jayce Tingler when he reached the dugout.
Posey said he hadn’t addressed the incident with Devers but would “probably sit down with him.” The first baseman addressed the media this afternoon and framed it as a misunderstanding with manager Tony Vitello (link via Maria Guardado of MLB.com).
“Two days before that, I had told him that I had a hamstring issue,” Devers said in Spanish. “I thought that was why he was taking me out of the game. That’s why I was trying to signal to him that I was fine. … I apologized, which was the right thing for me to do.” Devers added that he felt the media made the situation a bigger deal than it deserved, which he attributed to his tendency to avoid interviews. “Every time something happens with me, you guys (reporters) make a big deal out of it. I don’t care what you guys think of me because you guys are the ones who always focus on the negatives,” he concluded.
Vitello said there’s no issue and the situation was settled when the two spoke on the team’s postgame flight home from Miami. “I feel like Tony has the clubhouse,” Posey said of the first-year skipper. “I think he has the respect of the players in the clubhouse. Everything’s going to be heightened when our record is what it is, but there’s no concern on my part that he doesn’t have the respect of the clubhouse.”
