At 34, hard to know what Posey has left in tank
It’s still unclear exactly how much Buster Posey will play this season.
Heck, the Giants haven’t even told the face of the franchise what kinds of goals to set for games or plate appearances.
“Mine is: Play as much as I can,” Posey said. “I’m sure they might see it otherwise, but we haven’t talked about it to this point.”
Having turned 34 on Saturday, Posey returns after opting out of the 2020 season (he and his wife adopted premature twin girls) and is 21⁄2 years removed from right hip surgery that addressed an impingement and repaired a torn labrum.
Already having dealt with hip tightness this spring training, the sixtime AllStar is slated to be the Giants’ primary catcher, But he isn’t playing first base anymore and the National League is not using the designated hitter in home games.
The 2012 MVP has caught more than 120 games just once in his 11year career, and he hasn’t caught more than 101 in a season since 2016.
It’s fair to guess that Posey could need at least a couple of games off each week early in the season and, if he can prove sturdy, see his starts bumped as the year progresses. But until the Giants say something more definitive, that’s just a guess.
Maybe the answer can be found historically by comparing Posey to similarly experienced catchers.
With 961, Posey ranks fifth among active catchers in starts at the position; the top four are the Cardinals’ Yadier Molina (1,923), the Angels’ Kurt Suzuki (1,356), the White Sox’s Jonathan Lucroy (1,032) , and free agent Matt Wieters (1,018).
Molina, a ninetime AllStar, has 162game averages of .281 with 13 homers and 75 RBIs during his 17 seasons. When he was 34 in 2017, he batted .273 with 18 homers and 82 RBIs.
Suzuki, playing for his fifth team as he enters his 15th season, has 162game averages of .259 with 14 homers and 75 RBIs. He was 34 in 2018 and batted .271 with 12 homers and 50 RBIs for Atlanta.
Lucroy and Wieters — both of whom were 34 last season — are at the other end of the spectrum. Lucroy was limited to two innings in one game because of a herniated disk in his neck; Wieters played just 19 games (18 at catcher) for St. Louis.
It’s likely that Posey will finish the season somewhere between the Molina/Suzuki and Lucroy/Wieters examples.
Posey’s power has dipped steadily, falling from 22 homers in 2014 to five in 2018. He smacked seven homers in 2019, but the career .302 hitter’s average plummeted to .257.
In 11 spring training games this season, Posey is hitting .250 with no home runs. He has two doubles in 20 atbats.
Baseballreference.com projects that Posey will hit .256 in 2021, with five homers and 24 RBIs, but the Giants appear to have different hopes.
Asked on KNBR if he could see Posey catching 100120 games, manager Gabe Kapler said: “That’s a big workload for a catcher. … I think nothing’s out of the question. We wouldn’t take anything off the table for a guy who takes care of himself like Buster does.”