When I talked to Posey last weekend about his trade philosophy and whether the Giants were wary of trading a good young pitcher after then-general manager Brian Sabean lived through trading Zack Wheeler for Carlos Beltran in 2011 — and years of second-guessing while Wheeler became one of the game’s best pitchers — Posey couldn’t have been clearer. In his own, subtle way, Posey was practically bursting with kinetic trade energy.
“I love the Wheeler trade,” Posey said back then. “I mean, I just think it was such a bold move by Sabes, bringing in Carlos Beltrán, one of the great hitters in the game. And it was just a signal to the group that he felt like we were in a position to go out and win again.
“I don’t look at that as a negative. Because again, it was the leader of our operation saying, ‘Believe in you guys.’”
It’s an easy update from that conversation to Sunday. The Devers acquisition means that Posey believes in his players, who’ve kept in close contact with the Dodgers through almost half the season now. It shows that he understands what Devers’ bat can do for them now and for many more years. And that he was willing to not only sacrifice Harrison to do it but also pick up the remaining eight-plus years of the 10-year, $313.5-million deal Devers signed before last season.
That comes after Posey signed Willy Adames to a seven-year, $182-million deal last offseason. So the Giants are committed to paying Devers and Adames a combined $59 million through the 2031 season … and then, after Adames’ deal expires before the 2032 season, Devers will still be owed $28.5 million each in 2032 and 2033. If you include the deal with Matt Chapman that Posey helped to get done at the tail end of last season (and was the first sign that Posey not only was going to take over baseball operations but that he wasn’t going to do it meekly), it’s $82.2 million combined to those three players through 2030, when Chapman’s deal expires.
You can always trade anybody, as Boston just proved. But this is a fairly large pot-commitment to these three guys. You’ve got to imagine that, at least for a little while, the Giants are done chasing after (and missing on) the biggest free agents. And I think Posey probably wasn’t in love with that concept, anyway — he essentially sat out the Juan Soto chase last offseason, for instance.
There’s a theme here, too: Devers is 28, Adames 29, and Chapman 32. They’re very accomplished players who should be right in the middle of their primes. They’re good right now (though we’ll see if Adames fully breaks out of his slump and if Devers takes time to adjust to the Giants), but they’re not rentals and not on their last legs.
