PHOENIX — For roughly a decade, Bruce Bochy counted on Buster Posey as the backbone of the San Francisco Giants on the field. Now, entering his third year as the Texas Rangers’ manager, Bochy will be tasked with beating the teams that Posey creates in San Francisco’s front office.
“I was excited for Buster,” Bochy said at Cactus League Media Day at the Arizona Biltmore A Waldorf Astoria Resort. “Obviously, I think it’s a good move because of what I think about Buster. He’ll do a tremendous job. He’s smart. He knows the game. He has a good feel for people.”
Bochy admitted that he had never thought about the possibility of Posey becoming the Giants’ president of baseball operations, but did believe that Posey would have the capacity to take on any role he desired.
“There’s no ceiling on him,” Bochy said. “It was just a matter of what he wanted to do.”
Bochy served as Posey’s manager for all but one of Posey’s 11 major-league seasons, winning three World Series titles in five years with Posey as his starting catcher. Posey played 1040 games with Bochy as his manager between the regular season, penning out just about every chapter of his Hall of Fame career under Bochy’s watch.
While Bochy and Posey are technically competing against one another, they’ll both have an opportunity to celebrate one of the best shortstops in franchise history later this season.
Brandon Crawford announced his retirement on social media in November, and on April 26, the Giants will honor Crawford at Oracle Park. Appropriately enough, the Giants scheduled the event to coincide with Bochy, who managed Crawford for nine seasons, and the Rangers being in town.
“I’m really, really happy that I’ll be there to watch,” Bochy said. “I can’t think him enough for what he did for our team, for me — his leadership, his play. It’s going to be pretty cool. I get to see the fans acknowledge him and thank him for what he did. Those are cool deals. I appreciate the timing of this.”
From 2012 to 2019, Bochy penned Crawford into the starting lineup — all at shortstop — on 1100 occasions, or roughly 85 percent of San Francisco’s regular-season games, by far the most of any player during that span. That doesn’t included the 38 times that Bochy started Crawford in the playoffs, either. In time, Crawford would become the record holder for most games played at shortstop in franchise history.
With Bochy observing from the dugout, Crawford helped the Giants win World Series titles in 2012 and 2014 and orchestrated some of the most memorable moments in franchise history in the process. When Oracle Park’s jumbotron broadcasts a montage of Crawford’s career highlights, the shortstop’s crowd-silencing grand slam against the Pittsburgh Pirates during the 2014 Wild Card Game and iconic double play with Joe Panik in Game 7 of the 2014 World Series will be front and center.
“He helped us put two rings on our fingers, but really, the consistency defensively,” Bochy said. “Every day, he was out there. I probably wore him out at times because he didn’t get a lot of days off. He never said a word. His clutch hitting; he had a knack fro driving in the big run. For the most part, he hit in the back end of the order and kept things moving. He’s one of those guys that you’re thankful he’s on your club.”