Analysis | Posey’s retirement, toll of a catcher’s career

After a storied 12- year career, San Francisco Giants Legend, Buster Posey retires. The pains that come with a career spent behind home plate could have a lot to do with an earlier than expected retirement. Photo courtesy of WikiCommons

San Francisco Giants legend, Buster Posey, announced he would be retiring from the game of baseball at the beginning of this month. After a storied 12-year MLB career, he retires as one of the greatest catchers in the history of baseball. An Instagram poll run by The Panther found around half of respondents feel that Posey still retired too early.

At 34 years old, Posey is a seven-time All-Star, the 2010 National League Rookie of the Year, the 2012 National League Most Valuable Player, and a three-time World Series Champion. 

After opting out of the 2020 pandemic-shortened season, he was able to focus his energy on returning for his last year with his best. 

"(Taking time off)  allowed me to ... really, really empty the tank this year like I never have before," Posey said during his official media announcement. 

Posey surely brought his best in the 2021 season; he hit for a .304 average and helped the Giants win the National League West Division. 

With Buster Posey retiring from his relatively short career, sports media all over the country have been discussing his place among the all time greats. Despite not having the career stats to make him a clear first ballot Hall of Famer, he was arguably the best overall catcher of the last decade, spent his entire career in San Francisco and was without a doubt the backbone to the unlikely Giants dynasty of the early 2010s. 

“He really set the precedent for what it meant to be a leader at the catcher position”, said junior business administration major Colten Dacunha, who grew up catching and rooting for the Giants. “So much of what I know about catching was modeled after Posey.”

In 2010, Posey’s rookie year, the Giants overcame 10-to-1 odds to win the World Series. In 2012, they did it again against 7/12-to-1 odds. Then, in 2014, the Giants won another World Series (their third in five years) against 14-to-1 odds going into the playoffs — and Posey was at the center of it all. 

Another way Posey affected the game forever, one that perhaps has something to do with his early retirement, is his role in the plate collision rule change of 2014. Following a World Series title and a Rookie of the Year award in 2010, within the first few months of the 2011 season, Posey suffered a season-ending injury that would change the way baseball looked at home plate collisions. 

“After Posey’s injury, people started coaching differently on how to slide into home plate,” said Greg Barrack, a junior business administration major and former catcher. “The rule…. (teaches) kids to slide into home and (explains) how catchers shouldn't block home plate for their own safety.” 

In an extra innings game against the Miami Marlins, Scott Cousins flew around third base and collided with Posey at home plate — which, at the time, was a baseball norm — in an effort to score a run. Posey fractured his fibula, raising questions about whether the current rules for baseball were doing a good job protecting the players. 

A few years later, the rules around how a player could collide into another at home plate changed, and many look at Posey’s incident as being a turning point in that decision. 

In baseball, catching is known for being notoriously hard on your body. Not only are you frequently sacrificing your body to block pass balls, but you’re also taking foul balls off the helmet every inning, sitting in a squat all game and are the only player — besides the pitcher, who usually doesn’t pitch the whole game — involved in every play. 

As a result of the physical duress of the position, many catchers will often play the latter half of their career at first base — such as Joe Mauer — which is a much easier position on their health. Although Posey returned to baseball in 2012 to win a Most Valuable Player award, a Comeback Player of the year award and another World Series title, being a catcher in Major League Baseball (MLB) took a serious toll on his body. 

Over the years, Posey began missing more games, and his explosiveness soon started to diminish. At this point in his life, Posey’s values are at a different place; with a wife and young children, he hopes to spend more time with them in his retirement. 

"I want to do more stuff from February to November with my family," Posey said in a Nov. 3 news conference. "Physically, it's much harder now. It's hard to enjoy it as much when there is physical pain that you're dealing with.”

MLB players can spend as much as nine months of the year either in spring training, game season or the playoffs. The toll of doing that, especially as a catcher, was both physically and mentally draining, according to Posey, especially at the cost of sacrificing time with his family.

"It was getting to the point that things that I was enjoying were not as joyful anymore,” Posey said. 

Despite being done playing professionally, Buster Posey understands the San Francisco Giants community won’t let him off that easily. He will forever be a part of their hearts and memories as the leader during their finest era. After finishing his career on such a high note, there is no doubt they are grateful for his service.

"In my mind I'll always be part of the Giants organization,” Posey said. “I feel very lucky that we had the season that we had this year, personally and team-wise."