:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70088414/1346662564.0.jpg)
San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey plans to announce his retirement from Major League Baseball on Thursday. The 35-year-old was set to enter free agency this week after the 2021 MLB season finished. Instead of running things back with the surprise Giants from 2021, Posey will hang up his cleats and retire.
Over the course of his career, Posey won pretty much everything you can win in baseball. He was Rookie of the Year in 2010 when he had 18 HRs and 65 RBI with a .305 average. Posey would go on to help San Fran win a championship the same year. In 2012, Posey won NL MVP after putting up 24 HRs and 103 RBI while leading the League in batting average at .336. That same year he won his second World Series ring with the Giants.
The 7-time All-Star also won multiple Silver Slugger awards and a Gold Glove award to add to the trophy case. In 2014, he won his third World Series ring after the Giants beat the Kansas City Royals. Perhaps the only thing he didn’t accomplish in his career was winning WS MVP.
While Posey’s career would be considered short, lasting only 12 years, he’s going to have a very strong case for the Baseball Hall of Fame. As listed above, we don’t often see catchers so decorated. He’s got three rings, an MVP, batting title and Gold Glove. Posey accumulated 1,500 hits and 158 homers in 1,371 career MLB games. He’s arguably the best catcher of the 2010’s along with Yadier Molina.
Posey’s final season with the Giants was somewhat of a letdown in the playoffs, a five-game loss to the Dodgers in the Divisional Round. Still, nobody pegged the Giants as a playoff team heading into 2021 and they surprised everyone by finishing with the best record in baseball. Posey hit 18 HRs with 56 RBI while hitting .304 in 115 games in his final season.
Now that Posey is set to retire, this also clears the way for Giants top prospect Joey Bart to take over full-time at catcher in the 2022 season. Bart only played two games with the big club in 2021. In Triple-A he hit .294 with 10 HRs and 48 RBI in 67 games. For the sake of fantasy baseball, anyone who has Bart in dynasty or keeper leagues should be happy to see this news. All of us will still miss Posey being behind the plate for the Giants.