LASTING IMPRESSION
28 THINGS TO REMEMBER ABOUT POSEY’S CAREER WITH THE GIANTS
Buster Posey packed quite a career into his 12 seasons with the San Francisco Giants.
The seven-time All-Star was part of three World Series championships, won MVP and Rookie of the Year awards as well as a batting title. It’s a good guess no one will ever wear Posey’s No. 28 with the Giants again.
With Posey announcing his retirement later today, here’s a look at some of Posey’s career highlights by the number on his back since Day 1:
1: Posey retires having played in the most postseason games (58) in Giants history. He’s also the franchise leader in postseason hits (57), passing longtime teammate Pablo Sandoval during the National League Division Series against the Dodgers last month.
2: The Giants promoted Posey for the first time on Sept. 2, 2009. He didn’t make his MLB debut for nine more days. It also was the number of managers he played for.
3: The number of no-hitters he caught in his career, and the number of World Series rings he owns.
4: In Game 4 of the 2010 World Series, Posey and Madison Bumgarner became the first rookie battery to start a World Series game since the Yankees’ Yogi Berra and Spec Shea in Game 1 of the 1947 Series. Posey homered in a 4-0 win over the Rangers.
5: Despite being voted the top player in college that season and ranking No. 1 in most draft projections, Posey lasted until the fifth pick in the 2008 draft. It must have been fate that Posey was still there for the Giants, because he was also selected in the MLB draft was as a high school senior in 2005 — by the Angels in the 50th round — but opted to attend Florida State.
6: Posey’s .302 career batting average at the end of the regular season was the sixth-highest among active major leaguers.
7: Number of times Posey was selected to the All-Star Game. He was picked to start in this year’s game, but didn’t play because of a thumb injury. He started four of the five games he played in and was hitless in seven at-bats, but walked three times and scored twice.
8: In 2013, Posey signed an eight-year, $167-million contract that kept him with the Giants for the entirety of his career.
9: Posey was one of nine Giants to be a part of the 2010, 2012 and 2014 World Series championship teams. He was the only one remaining on the roster when the Giants played the Dodgers in the NLDS.
10: He batted at least .284 in 10 of his 11 full seasons in the majors, including nine straight seasons from 2010-18. He batted over .300 six times, including this season and a MLB-leading .336 in 2012.
11: Posey ended this season 11th among active position players with a career WAR of 44.9.
12: Seasons Posey played with the Giants.
13: On June 13, 2012, Posey was behind the plate to catch Matt Cain’s perfect game against the Astros. It was the first perfect game in Giants history.
14: Number of shutouts he caught in the playoffs, a MLB record that might never be broken. No. 2 on the list is the Cardinals’ Yadier Molina with eight.
15: Posey finished with exactly 1,500 career hits.
16: Number of home runs he hit in his career at Coors Field, the most at any ballpark he visited.
17: On May 12, 2017, Posey hit a walkoff home run in the bottom of the 17th inning to beat the Reds. It was one of six walk-off hits in his career.
18: The 18 home runs Posey hit this season were the most he’d hit since 2015, when he hit 19. His career-high was 24 in 2012. He hit his first MLB home run in his 18th career game.
19: Collected the first hit of his Giants career on Sept. 19, 2009 off of the Dodgers’ Jeff Weaver. Posey collected 1,499 more over the next 12 years.
20: Opted out of the 2020 season because of health concerns for the twin baby girls he and his wife, Kristen, had adopted. Ada and Livvi were premature and had weakened immune systems.
21: Posey’s hitting streak as a rookie in 2010, falling one shy of Willie McCovey’s
San Franciso franchise record for a rookie.
22: The salary number, in millions, that Posey’s retirement leaves the Giants to spend to try and help fill his void on the roster.
23: Posey played 23 of his first 34 games in the majors at first base before the Giants cleared the catcher spot for him by trading away Bengie Molina in July of 2010.
24: How many more first-place votes Posey had than the Brewers’ Ryan Braun to easily win the 2012 NL Most Valuable Player award. Posey got 27 of the 32 firstplace votes - the Cardinals’ Yadier Molina got the other two) and won in a landslide,
25: Posey had 25 RBI in 58 career playoff games
26: He hit 26 home runs as a junior at Florida State in 2008. One of those was a grand slam against Savannah State University in a game that saw Posey play all nine positions.
27: Posey will be eligible for Hall of Fame consideration in 2027.
28: The number Posey wore for his entire Giants career and almost certainly never be worn by another Giant. The Giants currently have 12 retired numbers: 3 (Bill Terry), 4 (Mel Ott), 11 (Carl Hubbell), 20 (Monte Irvin), 22 (Will Clark), 24 (Willie Mays), 25 (Barry Bonds), 27 (Juan Marichal), 30 (Orlando Cepeda), 36 (Gaylord Perry), 42 (Jackie Robinson), 44 (Willie McCovey).