Posey hitting balls ‘in trees out there’

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Buster Posey has been down this potholed road before. He looks and feels great in spring training only to wear down through the season from the rigors of catching, playing every day and travel.

Thus, though Posey is impressing the Giants’ staff with the potency of his swings early in camp, the last person to get overly excited is Posey himself.

“I don’t want to get too far ahead because it’s early and it’s BP,” Posey said after Thursday’s workout, “but it does feel a lot better. I feel it’s been better the first couple of days.”

“It” is Posey’s surgically repaired right hip, which was strong enough to let him play in 2019 but still weak enough to limit his baseball work last winter and contribute to a further drop in his production.

Health alone did not lead to the worst offensive numbers of Posey’s 11year career. He hinted in September that he would look into swing changes and is studying those with his three new hitting coaches because, as he said last week, anyone who won’t listen and adapt will be “left in the dust.”

“One thing we’ve seen that is unequivocally clear is that his power is right where it needs to be,” manager Gabe Kapler said. “Even in early batting practice sessions, you can see the flight of the ball, and it tells a really good story.”

Kapler quizzes his coaches on what they see during practice and said more than one who watched Posey raved about “some of the balls he is putting in the trees out there.”

Posey will not reveal precisely what changes he hopes to make but acknowledged that he spoke with coaches Thursday about restoring the flexibility and rotation that helped him generate power before the hip injury.

That is a primary focus early in camp. He will attempt these changes piecemeal, admitting that he absorbs information best if given to him one or two bits at a time.

Posey termed it “pretty cool” to work with new director of hitting Dustin Lind, who not only understands swings but also has a physicaltherapy background and can work with Posey to maximize his strength as the season progresses.

“I think it absolutely can help,” Posey said.

A season lost: The irony was not lost on catcher Aramis Garcia. He went to the Dominican Republic to play winter ball to boost his chances of winning the wideopen competition to be Posey’s backup — only to hurt his hip so badly he could not lift his leg.

That meant surgery and probably a lost 2020 season for Garcia, who would have been the favorite to fill the spot that opened when Stephen Vogt signed with Arizona.

While Rob Brantly, Tyler Heineman and others compete for the job that Garcia coveted, the 27yearold walked into the clubhouse Thursday on crutches, his hip enveloped in a brace.

He was a week removed from the operation to repair his torn labrum, which was performed in Colorado at the same clinic by the same surgeon who repaired Posey’s hip in 2018.

When a reporter kiddingly asked Garcia if he was on the same table as Posey, he smiled and said, “I hope so.”

Garcia started picking Posey’s brain about surgery even before getting a second opinion on his hip. Their operations were similar, but not identical, because Garcia did not have a microfracture performed to generate scar tissue as Posey did.

Garcia is naturally disappointed but took solace in the timing of the surgery, which theoretically could put him back on the field late this season. The recovery time is six to eight months.