Posey will sit out the season
SF Giants catcher will stay home with his newly adopted twin girls
SANFRANCISCO>> San Francisco Giants star Buster Posey announced Friday he will sit out the 2020 season after he and his wife Kristen adopted identical twin girls.
Posey said the girls were born last Friday and will need to remain in the neonatal intensive care unit for some time, so he and Kristen decided it was in the family’s best decision to opt out of participating this year.
“After much discussion with my wife and doctors and a decision that I’ve wrestled with quite a bit since I knew that this adoption was on the table, I’ve decided to opt out of the 2020 baseball season,” Posey said. “We feel this is the best decision for these babies and for our family as well.”
The three-time World Series champion and former National League MVP becomes the highest-profile player in Major League Baseball to elect to sit out the season and follows other stars including Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher David Price and Washington Nationals infielder Ryan Zimmerman.
Posey said he likely would have participated in the 2020 season if he and his wife were not adopting children during the pandemic.
“The adoption actually became official yesterday afternoon and my wife, myself and our older children are overwhelmed with joy to welcome them into our family, to love them unconditionally and to share life with them,” Posey said. “The twins were born prematurely, thank god they are doing really well, but they are going to have to be in the NICU for quite some time.”
Posey, 33, made the announcement a week after the Giants held their first workout of the summer. The six-time All-Star will not be paid any of his 2020 salary nor will he receive service time after choosing to skip the season.
“I think it was kind of an obvious and easy call for Buster and I think the fact that he took the time to think it through shows his dedication and loyalty to his teammates and how much he loves the game and he loves to play,” Giants’ president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi said.
The 10-year veteran was not present at the team’s first workout of the summer due to what manager Gabe Kapler termed a “personal matter,” but participated in practices on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Posey also missed consecutive practices on Wednesday and Thursday of this week.
Kapler expressed his full support for Posey Friday, saying it was an honor to have Posey attend his introductory press conference as Giants manager and detailing how Posey has aided him in his first year on the job.
“(Buster) is just is supportive and thoughtful and caring and it is an absolute honor to be able to return that support and say that I think Buster is making an incredible and thoughtful decision for his family and the one that makes the most sense,” Kapler said.
Posey and his wife have two other children and the catcher has often spoken in the past about the importance of family and his role as a father.
After reporting to summer camp on Saturday, Posey met with reporters over Zoom and expressed reservation about participating in the 2020 season, but did not indicate he and his wife were planning to adopt.
“I’ve thought about it and talked about it with my wife, quite a bit,” Posey said Saturday. “I think there’s still some reservation on my end. I think I want to see how things progress here over the next couple of weeks.”
“I think you’d be a little bit maybe naive or silly not to gauge what’s going on around you — not only here, but paying attention to what’s happening in different parts of the country. [It’s] obviously unprecedented times right now.”
Of the 83 positive coronavirus tests to date, 71 have been players and 12 have been team staff members.