LOS ANGELES -- Long before he made the decision to take over the Giants baseball operations department, Buster Posey was fascinated by the trade deadline. He watched all sorts of moves during his time as a player, and he saw the kind of impact that a lead executive can have without ever taking the field.
Two weeks ago, as the calendar turned to June and Posey watched his lineup struggle to score runs, he admitted he felt the need to make a splash. He wasn't sure if he would be able to, but he felt there was something special building if the Giants could just score a bit more consistently.
"I think there's pressure to put this team in a position to win ball games, because, as you mentioned, the pitching staff is really good and I believe that that's going to continue through the year," he said on the Giants Talk Podcast. "Yeah, I think there's urgency from everybody to provide these guys with run support."
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SIGN UP HERE Six weeks before his first deadline, Posey delivered.
The Giants are acquiring Boston Red Sox star Rafael Devers in a blockbuster that shook up the baseball world minutes before a game at Dodger Stadium, sources confirmed to NBC Sports Bay Area. Kyle Harrison, the scheduled starter Sunday, is the main piece of the deal, and according to Robert Murray of FanSided -- who first reported the shocking details -- he'll be joined by Jordan Hicks, 2024 first-round draft pick James Tibbs III and 20-year-old pitching prospect Jose Bello.
The Giants, Posey declared Sunday, are going for it.
They are doing so in a fascinating way, and not just because the deal happened six weeks before anyone expected real movement, and was centered around a player who was once supposed to be a pillar in Boston. They're pushing all their chips to the middle with a slugger who is in some ways an imperfect fit in San Francisco.
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Devers has been a third baseman his entire career, but the Red Sox added Alex Bregman in the offseason and Devers was not pleased, both publicly and privately. When they lost their starting first baseman, he indicated he didn't want to play there either, and he has been a DH in all 72 appearances this season.
The Giants appear to have bigger holes elsewhere -- Wilmer Flores has been their everyday DH -- but they can work around that this season. Flores can play first and Devers likely can, too, and the hope is surely that he's more willing in a new home to pick the glove back up. Short term, Matt Chapman is on the IL, although it might be asking a lot of Devers to return to third base right away, and for just three weeks or so.
Long term, the Giants will have to sort through the Devers-Bryce Eldridge fit. Their top prospect is a first baseman, but may also need DH time at the big league level if the glove doesn't develop as hoped. This offseason, when Flores hits free agency, the Giants will have to figure out who their 2026 starting first baseman is.
If Devers ends up at DH, they're taking on a lot -- he's in the second year of a 10-year, $313.5 million deal -- for a bat-only player, but that bat might be worth it.
Devers comes to San Francisco with a 145 wRC+, .905 OPS, 15 homers and an AL-leading 56 walks. He's a three-time All-Star and two-time Silver Slugger Award winner who is a career .279 hitter. In three different seasons, Devers has cleared 30 homers, and he hit 28 last season.
Devers immediately becomes the team's best hitter, and joins a core that includes Chapman, Willy Adames, Heliot Ramos, Jung Hoo Lee and, eventually, Eldridge. If there are any clubhouse concerns -- and it's hard right now to know if that was just a Boston thing -- Posey is surely counting on Adames and Chapman to smooth things over.
Posey and general manager Zack Minasian have spent weeks scouring the market for offensive upgrades, and they came away from their early searching with the impression that they might have to be patient. The president of baseball operations recently met with the coaching staff to make sure they relayed the message that a lot of fixes had to come from what they already had.
"There's never any certainty," he said recently. "I do know this, even though this is my first year doing this, there's never any certainty that you're going to be able to improve even if you wanted to."
On Sunday, he found a way to ensure some certainty. As a player, Posey was known for lining balls softly into center field. As an executive, he has proven to be someone who takes some of the biggest swings imaginable.