Rick Scuteri-USA TODAY Sports
It is hard to conceive of the Giants’ Opening Day going any worse by Gabe Kapler’s standards.
It is hard to conceive of Buster Posey’s Opening Day going any better.
Five hundred fifty-one days after his last game played, Posey looked rested and not rusted. It took the third pitch he saw, a cutter from Marco Gonzales that was not far enough inside, for the 34-year-old to turn on it and send it over the left-field wall.
He would not need to test his hip very much on the basepaths if he can jog around the bases more often.
“It was awesome just to see that again,” Brandon Belt, who’s seen it a time or two, said after the 8-7 loss in 10 innings in Seattle. “Two years ago, he wouldn’t have been able to do that, so it looks like his hip’s a lot healthier now, and he’s able to turn on those pitches. Probably going to see a lot more of that from Buster this year.”
Yeah, Buster’s Back pic.twitter.com/6wA7QOCX5B
— KNBR (@KNBR) April 2, 2021
Posey, who also walked once in five plate appearances, had sat out 2020 to care for his adopted newborns during the pandemic. The Giants missed the veteran presence at the most important position and would have welcomed him back with open arms even if his bat continued to decline.
But after Belt and Brandon Crawford bounced back under the new hitting coaches and with Posey’s hip theoretically healthy at least, following a year of rest, there is plenty of hope Posey can be the hitting minds’ next success story. His home run was the hardest-hit ball of the night, a 106.5-mph missile. In his ’19 season, the hardest contact he made all year was 107.6 mph.
The Giants hope he can be more than a defense-first catcher. And yet, the Giants love his defense.
Part of the reason Kevin Gausman signed with San Francisco in 2019 entailed getting to work with the six-time All-Star. That did not happen as Gausman broke out last season.
“I’ve always said from Day One, I definitely look forward to creating that battery mate kind of special bond,” Gausman said after 6 2/3 excellent innings on Opening Day. “Today was definitely a good situation for us and good to get the first one out of the way.”
Kapler, after his first actual game working with Posey, commended his receiving, even if Posey could not force the late-game relievers to throw strikes. The plan originally was for Posey to catch Gausman and Johnny Cueto and then have Curt Casali pair with Logan Webb in the finale in Seattle.
That might change after Posey caught 171 pitches in 10 innings after a spring in which Posey sat a few days with hip tightness. Casali could pair with Cueto on Friday night.
The Giants will want to rest Posey and not overwork him — especially if his bat continues to show there is more life in there.