San Francisco Giants’ Buster Posey plans to retire Thursday
San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey will announce his retirement from baseball on Thursday, according to a report by The Athletic on Wednesday.
Posey, 34, has played his entire 12-year career in San Francisco, helping the team win three World Series titles in 2010, 2012 and 2014.
The Giants said last month they would exercise Posey’s $ 22 million club option for the 2022 season as long as the veteran catcher wanted to keep playing after a stellar year.
Posey hinted during the playoffs that he might be ready and said he was willing to spend more family time at home with four young children.
“I’m definitely going to take some time with my wife, talk to her, be a full-time father of four for the first time in a while,” Posey said. Take it slowly and see how things play out . ”
Posey chose from the 2020 campaign shortened by the coronavirus to help care for premature adopted twin girls. He and his wife Kristen also have twins Lee and Addison, who have just turned 10.
Posey, whose deal includes a $ 3 million buyout, helped lead the Giants to a franchise record of 107 wins and their first National League West title since 2012 by regularly on the track played and demonstrated its health and durability.
He hit .304 with 18 homers and 56 RBIs, showing that his surgically repaired right hip was finally back to full strength three years after surgery. Posey would be one of six division-era players to hit .300 or better in his final MLB season, according to ESPN Stats & Information Research.
Posey, the 2010 NL Rookie of the Year, returned from a devastating leg injury at the end of the 2011 season and won the NL MVP the following year.
He tore three ligaments in his left ankle and broke a bone in his lower leg when he was run over by the Scott Cousins of the Marlins on May 25, 2011. Posey responded by winning the 2012 batting crown and MVP honors while turning the Giants to an a. led the second World Series championship in three years.
Posey advocated rules for better protection against collisions with home plate in order to avoid injuries for both catchers and baserunners.
“I try to stay out of the conversation as much as I can because I know people will connect me with him anyway,” Posey said in January 2014. “I just sit back and let the higher forces hammer it the end. I have my thoughts, but I keep them to myself. “
Posey was selected fifth by the Giants in the first round of the 2008 draft from Florida State, where he played all nine field positions in the same game in May 2008.
“Buster Posey is hanging them up. What an incredible career for a lifelong giant,” former Oakland Athletics left-hander Dallas Braden wrote on Twitter. “The statue is already being built.”
Posey is a lifetime .302 hitter, making him one of six catchers in Major League history to start 1,000 games at the catcher and have a lifetime batting average of .300 or more (subject to inclusion of Negro League stats) .
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
