Rick Scuteri-USA TODAY Sports
Buster Posey reported to Giants camp Saturday after missing Friday with a personal issue. The door that he entered, though, he left ajar in case he decides he does not feel comfortable playing this year.
The leader of the team said he has talked with his wife about opting out “quite a bit” over the past few months as coronavirus cases surged around the country. Several players around the league have opted out, including the Dodgers’ David Price, believing playing during a pandemic would be too dangerous. Posey and his family made the decision for him to go to spring training 2.0, but it is a first decision and not a last.
“I’m going to watch what’s going on and keep communicating with my wife and pay attention to what’s going on around me here at the ballpark and what’s going on in the country,” Posey said Saturday after his first workout. “I’d be surprised if you asked any player if they gave you a hard-lined, no-way, I’m-not-going-to-opt-out-ever answer.”
A day prior, Jeff Samardzija sounded a bit cavalier in hopes for a longer season, and no Giants have opted out. Posey is not as optimistic, saying he wouldn’t be surprised if anything happened at this point, from a 60-game season to a 30-game season to a 0-game season. Such is the nature of the virus that has killed more than 130,000 just in the United States.
Posey said he and his family have not been infected to this point, and while he’s not in the at-risk category, he knows just carrying the disease can spread it to someone who is more vulnerable.
“But you do have the cases as well where it hits some [uncompromised] people hard,” said the 33-year-old over Zoom. “The biggest concern for me is protecting the people that are going home to those people that are compromised or older.”
Still, he decided to come to camp and said players have to be “cautiously optimistic” a season can be squeezed in. He drives through San Francisco and sees most people wearing masks, but knows that is not the case everywhere.
Posey is able to take a step back and survey how safe it would be to play this year — the same way he could take a step back and summarize the weird nature of just being interviewed in July 2020.
“It’s such a strange time,” Posey said. “I’m looking at you guys wearing masks on a computer screen right now. I mean, what are we doing?”