San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey reportedly will announce his retirement on Thursday.
Posey, 34 and the face of the Giants' franchise for over a decade, plans to retire in a press conference on Thursday. The Athletic's Andrew Baggarly was the first to report the news, which NBC Sports Bay Area's Alex Pavlovic confirmed in a subsequent report.
KCBS Radio has reached out to the Giants for comment. We will update this story when we hear back.
Posey, a three-time World Series and the 2012 National League Most Valuable Player, was set to enter the final year of his contract with the Giants in 2022. He returned to the Giants in 2021 after sitting out the COVID-19 pandemic-shortened 2020 season over health concerns after he and his wife, Kristen, adopted twin girls.
Posey returned to form in a big way, making his seventh All-Star team and hitting more home runs (18) than in all but four of his 12 major league seasons. He could win his second NL Comeback Player of the Year Award and his fifth Silver Slugger later this month, after leading the Giants to a franchise-record 107 wins.
"If it's true (he's retiring), then he definitely will have gone out on top of his game because he had a sensational year," Giants broadcaster Jon Miller said Wednesday afternoon in an interview with KCBS Radio's Jeff Bell, Patti Reising and Kevin Radich.
The Giants drafted Posey No. 5 overall out of Florida State in 2008, and he made his Major League Baseball bebut debut the following September. Posey stayed around the big leagues for good after his May 29, 2010 call-up to the Giants, emerging as a steady hand behind the plate.
Posey was the 2010 NL Rookie of the Year, leading the Giants to their first World Series title since moving to San Francisco in 1958. His rookie season coincided with the beginning of the Giants' dynastic run, and they would win championships again in 2012 and 2014.
The catcher sustained a fractured fibula and torn ligaments in his ankle following a home-plate collision with Scott Cousins in 2011, but Posey returned in full force the next season. Posey was named NL MVP and Comeback Player of the Year, hitting a career-high 24 home runs and 103 RBI to go with a career-best .336 batting average. The Giants won another World Series that fall, surviving all six games in which they faced elimination.
Posey won his third ring two years later, finishing sixth in NL MVP voting. He began a streak of four consecutive All-Star appearances in 2015, but underwent season-ending hip surgery in 2018 after dealing with nagging issues all season. He hit fewer home runs that year (five) than any other in which he played at least 100 games.
After another down year in 2019 and not playing 2020, Posey looked refreshed in 2021. Miller recalled the Giants rarely played Posey more than two days in a row until the end of the season, keeping Posey's legs fresh and his swing strong headed into the playoffs.
Posey is "first and foremost a family man," Miller said, and he said it's possible Posey is choosing to prioritize them over prolonging an already great career.
"I think his game indicated that he still had some more strong seasons in him," Miller said. "But at the same time, as his wife pointed out years ago when he was much, much younger and in his prime physically, to see him get up in the morning and just try to get himself out of bed ... it was kind of hard to watch sometimes."
If Posey hangs up his cleats for good on Thursday, he'll end his career with a .302 batting average, 158 home runs and 729 RBI, as well as three World Series rings, Rookie of the Year, Comeback Player of the Year and MVP awards in his trophy case. He also won a batting title, a Gold Glove and four Silver Slugger Awards.
Posey would become eligible for induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2027, and Miller said he believes Posey would be enshrined following his first appearance on the ballot.
"Well I think so, and even just as much for the kind of contributions that he was able to make that had nothing to do with those statistics that you couldn't reall quantify," Miller said, "in terms of leading that pitching staff, to guide these pitchers through these games. And I think that was a total key of the Giants' success in those postseason runs in '10, '12 and '14. He never missed a game in any of those postseasons."
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