Bruce Bochy’s impact on the game continued on Monday with the introductory press conference of his catcher, Buster Posey, who is the new president of baseball operations of the San Francisco Giants.
The long-time manager’s impact is now being felt in front offices. Posey is now the second of Bochy’s former players to side to that title. The first is his current boss — Texas Rangers president of baseball operations Chris Young.
Bochy managed Young while the pair were in San Diego. Young lured Bochy out of retirement last year and the three-time world champion manager made it four as he led the Rangers to their first World Series crown.
This season didn’t go as he or Young would have hoped, as the Rangers slipped under .500 and failed to make the playoffs.
Bochy spoke to reporters on Tuesday in Arlington, Texas, as part of the franchise’s end-of-season press conferences. He was asked about Posey’s hiring. As one might expect, Bochy’s endorsement of his former player’s hiring was whole-hearted, which aligns with what many of Posey’s teammates have said in the past few days.
“He was a leader on our team and he just gets it,” Bochy said. “He’s a catcher who came up and really changed our club, how he handled the pitching staff and led the club to three championships from behind the plate. I’m not surprised about where he’s at now. He’s gonna provide that same leadership in the role he has now, and he’ll be good. He’ll be really good, because he has a great feel for the game and for people, and so he’s going to be good for baseball there.”
Posey, who is just 37 years old, is several years younger than his Rangers counterpart, Young, who played more than a dozen years of Major League Baseball and has a World Series ring with the Kansas City Royals. Young is now 45 years old.
Posey played his entire career for the Giants and nearly all of it under Bochy, breaking in during the 2009 season. He was the 2010 NL Rookie of the Year during the Giants’ first World Series season under Bochy. Posey won two more rings, was a seven-time All-Star, a five-time Silver Slugger and a two-time Comeback Player of the Year award winner, as he returned to the field from two major injuries.
Bochy is one of the winningest managers in Major League history and has led three different teams to the World Series. He re-affirmed on Tuesday that he will be returning to the bench for the 2025 season, which is the final year of his contract with the Rangers.
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