Buster Posey Likely Out for Year

[Elite]

Buster Posey was carted through a tunnel at AT&T Park on Thursday, a makeshift cast covering his left ankle and no emotion on his face.

Not exactly the exit the cornerstone of the World Series champion Giants wanted this season.

A night after Florida's Scott Cousins crashed into him at home plate, San Francisco's star catcher was put on the disabled list with a fractured bone in his lower left leg, likely ending his season and putting a major dent in the Giants' chances of a repeat. Posey was on his way for a scheduled MRI to make sure there wasn't more damage.

"You just don't replace a guy like Buster Posey," said Giants manager Bruce Bochy, a former catcher who was so stricken by the news he called on Major League Baseball to review rule changes for collisions at the plate.

As word spread throughout the Giants clubhouse, players began to come to grips with what Posey's injury meant.

The normally blaring speakers near bearded closer Brian Wilson's locker were uncharacteristically silent. Televisions were turned off. No one was playing dominoes or card games.

Hard to imagine a more important position player than Posey to replace.

Posey has been San Francisco's cleanup hitter, a team leader in the clubhouse and key cog behind the plate for one of baseball's best rotations. The reigning NL Rookie of the Year was batting .284 with four home runs and 21 RBIs, just finding his groove in the midst of a 13-game hitting streak to move the Giants into first place in the NL West.

"It's part of baseball, I understand that, guys running into catchers. Being a catcher, I've been in a few of them. You're in harm's way there," Bochy said. "I think we do need to consider changing the rules here a little bit because the catcher is so vulnerable and there's so many who have gotten hurt. And not just a little bit, had their careers ended or shortened. And here's a guy who's very popular in baseball. Fans want to see him play.

"Now he's out for a while."

The loss of Posey will be an enormous hurdle for the Giants to overcome if they want to repeat as champs.

Backup Eli Whiteside will be Posey's immediate replacement. The team also put infielder Mike Fontenot (left groin strain) and utility man Darren Ford (left ankle sprain) on the 15-day disabled list.

Slugger Brandon Belt and catcher Chris Stewart were recalled from Triple-A Fresno, and infielder Brandon Crawford was called up from Class-A San Jose.

"I'm not going to try and be Buster Posey," Whiteside said. "That's our cleanup hitter and one of the best hitters in baseball. I'll do my best and play my game, but I'm not going to try to be Buster Posey."

All this came after San Francisco's spirited four-run rally in the ninth to force extra innings a night earlier.

The play started when Emilio Bonifacio hit a shallow fly ball to right-center off Guillermo Mota for the second out in the 12th inning. Cousins tagged from third base on the sacrifice fly, beating the throw from Nate Schierholtz and lowering his shoulder to slam into Posey for a clean hit on the catcher. Cousins was safe as Posey never could quite corral the ball, giving Florida a 7-6 victory.

Cousins, who went to the University of San Francisco, lives in the Bay Area and had almost a dozen friends and family in attendance, apologized repeatedly for injuring Posey. But he believes — as most Giants reiterated — that he made a clean baseball play.

Cousins was even more remorseful when he heard the severity of the injury before the series finale, saying he had to look away from the replay that was shown repeatedly at the team's hotel. He said he tried calling Posey twice overnight, left messages with Giants trainers and sent his condolences to the other clubhouse.

"The last thing I wanted to do was break a guy's leg," he said, tears welling up in his eyes.

The moment was as stunning as any San Francisco has seen this season.

Posey lay in the dirt around home plate, dazed, writhing in pain and curling up in a ball. After several minutes of stunned silence, fans began chanting "Posey! Posey!" as he was helped off the field by two team trainers holding up his left leg.

Posey had already taken several hard foul tips off his mask and legs this season, even leaving one game as a precaution to make sure he didn't have a concussion. Some observers have argued a slugger of his caliber shouldn't be behind the plate, where hits can be routine, and this injury surely won't do much to quiet that sentiment.

Posey himself has always shaken off those remarks, saying he was born to play catcher and loves the position. Bochy also shook off questions that Posey should switch to first base — where he played some last year — in the future, saying it's too early to be talking about such plans.

"Right now," Bochy said, "we're just trying to get over the shock of this a little."

SMFH at all the people calling for new rules on collisions at home plate. Guys have been getting hurt doing it for awhile now and all of a sudden it happens to Posey and everybody wants to change the rules.

 

[RipCity32]

Yeah, rule changes just because of this would be ridiculous.
Tough loss for the Giants though.

 

[elcheato]

This happened to Carlos Santana last year and there wasn't this type of outrage I've been seeing.. Catches can stop this from happening by blocking the plate better.

 

[RipCity32]

This happened to Carlos Santana last year and there wasn't this type of outrage I've been seeing.. Catches can stop this from happening by blocking the plate better.

This outrage has been annoying as hell lol. Literally the only thing on ESPN today it seems lol.

 

[Lake Louise]

It's so ridiculous. Let's not pussify baseball by changing this. Plays at the plate are one of the most exciting things about the game. It's apart of the game, and what more could they do? They are already wearing pads, are they going to put them in a bubble so the players running home just bounce off them? It happened, and it's a huge blow to the Giants, but lets not pussify it.

 

[Rice18]

I would be pissed if they changed the rule, just because the golden boy catcher got injured. If it were someone else like cheato said, nothing would get this much talk.

 

[Mexi]

This happened to Carlos Santana last year and there wasn't this type of outrage I've been seeing.. Catches can stop this from happening by blocking the plate better.

good call
last year it was "aw. poor santana. poor indians. oh well"

i hate the giants, but i actually really like posey. true pro.
sucks for the Giants.

 

[WHO-DEY-BENGALS_18]

Man, that was nasty to see, but that's part of baseball. Huge loss for the Giants so I can see why they are frustrated.

 

[Lake Louise]

It's just one of those things that happens. It was one of those bang bang plays, and he didn't have the ball. He acted like he had the ball, and the runner thought he had it so he tried to jar it loose. He tried to rush things a little, and didn't have his feet set or anything. It's a tough break for the Giants, but they don't need to blow it out of proportion.

 

[snipezo]

Agreed with cheato.

 

[The Edge]

I love the outrage this has caused. It was posey's fault to begin with. He shouldn't have went down to his knees pinning his legs under himself for 1. I also love how they act like Posey has been a lifelong catcher that was just meant for the position when I believe he didn't even play catcher in college, started in minors and his defense and game calling abilities were questioned pretty heavily.

Like Posey is actually an elite offensive player...its part of the game, part of the position and as "good" as he was last year(which really wasn't that good, outside of 15 game stretch where he went 30 for 61 he was barely an average catcher at the plate, just had small enough a sample size that the 30 hits in 15 days drug his standard stats way up and I will note that in those 15 days he faced a ton of crappy pitchers as well, and for a guy that was so "important to his offense and pitching" his WPA is ridiculously low for what everyone thinks he did...)

I guess when you play a short season and have a 15 game fluke stretch and "handle"(like a monkey could't???) the best pitching staff the game has to offer you become godlike..

 

[cruzg24]

I love the outrage this has caused. It was posey's fault to begin with. He shouldn't have went down to his knees pinning his legs under himself for 1. I also love how they act like Posey has been a lifelong catcher that was just meant for the position when I believe he didn't even play catcher in college, started in minors and his defense and game calling abilities were questioned pretty heavily.

Like Posey is actually an elite offensive player...its part of the game, part of the position and as "good" as he was last year(which really wasn't that good, outside of 15 game stretch where he went 30 for 61 he was barely an average catcher at the plate, just had small enough a sample size that the 30 hits in 15 days drug his standard stats way up and I will note that in those 15 days he faced a ton of crappy pitchers as well, and for a guy that was so "important to his offense and pitching" his WPA is ridiculously low for what everyone thinks he did...)

I guess when you play a short season and have a 15 game fluke stretch and "handle"(like a monkey could't???) the best pitching staff the game has to offer you become godlike..

Someone thinks Buster Posey to vastly overrated. As for the play, I thought it was pretty clean. Posey wasnt blocking the plate correctly which contributed to the injury. That was a clean hit by that Marlins player, he did what he was supposed to do.