Giants’ Gabe Kapler on Buster Posey’s comeback: He’ll make ‘lion’s share’ of starts at catcher

Giants manager Gabe Kapler discussed how the team views Buster Posey and Joey Bart entering the 2021 season on Tuesday.

As the coronavirus pandemic continues, the San Francisco Giants don’t know when pitchers and catchers will be cleared to report to spring training and if the 2021 season will start on time.

There aren’t many certainties for a league that cut its most recent season short by 102 games, but Giants manager Gabe Kapler has been assured of one key detail. When his club does take the field again, catcher Buster Posey will be there.

“It’s kind of difficult to say an exact number of games a week we expect Buster to catch, but obviously everybody knows he’ll be our primary catcher,” Kapler said in a videoconference with reporters on Tuesday. “Not just a voice we’ll lean on heavily, but between the lines we’re going to utilize his brain and his body to the best of our ability.”

Days after the start of summer camp in July, Posey announced he had elected to sit out the 2020 season after he and his wife Kristen adopted twin girls. With uncertainty surrounding how Major League Baseball would complete a season during the pandemic and Posey’s desire to prioritize the health and safety of his family, he expressed confidence in his decision and hope in the possibility of returning by Opening Day in 2021.

With vaccines arriving in the United States this week and MLB weighing the idea of postponing the start of its season to ensure players and coaches can receive vaccinations before resuming play, the Giants anticipate Posey to return to his post as the team’s starting catcher this spring.

“He’s added some muscle, some usable lean tissue,” Kapler said. “He’s looking agile and strong and fresh. I think the time off gave him time to reassess where his body was, and he’s taken that time to make improvements.”

For the first time since the Giants selected Posey’s heir apparent, Joey Bart, with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2018 amateur draft, the team’s top decision-makers must develop concrete plans for how the club will use both catchers when they’re on the major league roster at the same time.

After batting .233 with a .609 OPS in 33 games for the Giants during his debut season, Bart may not open 2021 at the major league level, but Kapler and president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi are preparing for the reality that the franchise’s top prospect will be able to contribute in a more significant way by the middle of the summer.

“I don’t think it’s any secret that last year was a challenge for Joey on a number of different levels,” Kapler said. “We think the development time he had at the major league level was really good for him and we’ll continue to assess his readiness and think about Buster as a surefire lock for our Opening Day roster and the lion’s share of the reps back there.”

The Giants won’t need to make a more formal determination on how to divide playing time between Posey and Bart until the rookie catcher demonstrates improvement, but much of the plan will be dictated by how Posey performs in the final guaranteed year of his contract.

Posey will be 34 on Opening Day and he’ll be nearly three years removed from his last All-Star appearance. After undergoing major hip surgery to repair his labrum in 2019 and skipping the 2020 season, it’s unrealistic to expect him return to the form he showcased earlier in his career.

Despite the long layoff, the Giants are still optimistic the veteran catcher can provide a game-changing presence behind the plate. Their rationale is based in partly in Posey’s performance during the 2019 season, when a hip injury hindered his ability to drive the ball but he remained a valuable defender.

Giants pitchers have long praised Posey’s game-calling and his stabilizing presence and right-hander Kevin Gausman even cited the catcher’s anticipated return in 2021 as one of the motivating factors to rejoin the organization this offseason.

After some of Posey’s longest-tenured teammates, Brandon Crawford and Brandon Belt, enjoyed impressive seasons at the plate under the guidance of Kapler’s new coaching staff, the Giants are eager to see if the only remaining three-time World Series champion on the roster will make similar strides.

Johnny Cueto won’t pitch in winter ball

Weeks after ESPN Deportes reported Giants veteran Johnny Cueto was hoping to pitch in the Dominican Winter League for the Estrellas Orientales, Kapler said those plans have changed.

Kapler did not provide any details about the Giants’ discussions with Cueto that will keep him off the mound this offseason, but noted the two sides had several conversations before making the determination.

An appearance in a winter league would be unusual for a player with Cueto’s long track record of major league success, but after his 2018 Tommy John surgery, the Giants starter has struggled with command issues and has been working to regain the form he showed at the beginning of the six-year contract he signed prior to the 2015 season.