SAN FRANCISCO — Buster Posey joined the Giants at training camp Saturday, but he’s not ruling out the possibility of sitting out the season as the COVID-19 pandemic continues around the county and the world.
While Posey didn’t indicate that such an opt-out was likely, he said Saturday in a video conference that he considered such a move ahead of his arrival and will continue to evaluate the safety of playing.
“I’ve thought about it and talked about it with my wife, quite a bit,” Posey said. “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.”
To date, there have been five players on MLB rosters that have opted out of the season, Diamondbacks pitcher Mike Leake, the Nationals’ Ryan Zimmerman and Joe Ross, Rockies outfielder Ian Desmond, and the Dodgers’ David Price. The Los Angeles starting pitcher and former Cy Young Award winner announced his decision on Saturday afternoon.
“I’d be surprised if you asked any player, if they gave you a hard-line, ‘No way, I’m not gonna opt out ever’ answer,” Posey said.
“Buster and I chatted today. We had a nice conversation,” Giants manager Gabe Kapler said. “He sets a great example of speaking openly about where he stands on things. This is a very personal decision and whatever Buster decides to do, myself and the organization are going to support.”
Posey caught live batting practice Saturday, highlighting the fact that he’s in close proximity to umpires and batters, making him arguably the only player on the baseball diamond that isn’t naturally socially distanced.
“To a certain extent, you have to trust some of the testing,” Posey said. “Obviously it’s not going to be bulletproof, but I do know that the medical staff’s taking extreme measures to make sure guys are getting tested every other day.”
[You] understand that there’s some inherent risk involved there. But… I don’t know what you would do from the catcher standpoint other than wear a mask while you’re catching and I just, I’m not sure how realistic that is.”
Posey said Saturday that he remained in the Bay Area during the break during baseball’s break and commended the way California political leadership has handled the pandemic. He also said that no one in his family has contracted COVID-19 to date. His absence from the Giants’ first day of camp was a family matter.
“All is well,” he said.
One of the pitchers Posey caught Saturday in live batting practice was Logan Webb. The Giants catcher called the pitchers’ performance “electric” and that it was a “tick or two” above where it was in spring training.
Kapler also took notice of Webb’s stuff and how he fits into the Giants’ rotation.
“We’re looking at putting him into a category of handling bulk innings rule for us,” Kapler said. “As always, nothing is set in stone and we’re going to see how things develop as we go through the modified camp, but we see him in a role for us to take multiple innings. We’ll try to build him up as much as possible.”
That could be a big change for Webb, who as a 23-year-old pitcher, might have been facing an innings limit in a 162-game season.
Webb, who boasts some of the best “stuff” in the Giants’ system, posted a 5.22 ERA in his first eight Major League starts last year, but advanced metrics indicated a stronger performance.
As for who else could join Webb as a “bulk innings” pitcher:
“I think it’s a little premature to start like comparing and contrasting,” Kapler said of the Giants’ pitchers.“It’s not five or six or four [starters]. We need to see how quickly we can get these guys built up. The likelihood is that we’re not going to have many, if any, pitchers built up for much more than three or three-plus [innings].
“There’s just not enough time on the calendar.”
