Giants invite familiar faces to spring training as guest instructors originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
SAN FRANCISCO — The first spring training under president of baseball operations Buster Posey will look an awful lot like the years when he was franchise catcher Buster Posey.
The Giants on Monday announced their list of guest instructors for camp, which starts next week at Scottsdale Stadium, and it’s filled with players who teamed with Posey to win titles a decade ago. Most notably, the Giants have invited a few former players who have not had much of an affiliation with the organization since retiring.
The championship-era players who will visit Scottsdale at some point are Jeremy Affeldt, Santiago Casilla, Javier Lopez, Joe Panik, Hunter Pence, Yusmeiro Petit, Marco Scutaro and Ryan Vogelsong. Casilla, Petit and Scutaro, in particular, have not been seen often since their playing days ended, mostly just visiting for reunions. Posey talked at FanFest over the weekend about the importance of young players learning from someone like Petit, who dominated while throwing a 90 mph fastball at the bottom of the zone.
Posey spoke to Madison Bumgarner last year after taking the job and said his former battery-mate has expressed some interest in helping out. The Giants plan to let Brandon Crawford enjoy retirement for a year before talking about any next steps with the organization, although the longtime shortstop lives a short drive away and would be welcomed if he wants to visit this spring.
The Giants also will use several guest instructors with ties to prior generations. Longtime pitching coach Dave Righetti will be back in camp, along with J.T. Snow, Rich Aurilia and Jeffrey Leonard.
Under the previous regime, the Giants initially scaled back their ties to former Giants players and coaches, but manager Bob Melvin changed that last season and invited several familiar faces — including Righetti — back to Scottsdale. Posey is ramping that up, and that’s not a surprise. He has spoken in the past about how impactful it was to be a young player and talk to former Giants like Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Orlando Cepeda, Juan Marichal and Gaylord Perry.
“When you can take a minute and stop and think, ‘These are some of the greatest players that have ever donned a Major League uniform, let alone a San Francisco Giants uniform, and they’re willing to sit down with me and just talk baseball or sit and do a coffee side chat in the clubhouse.’” he said in December. “I think the more that time goes along, you appreciate it more. Maybe you get something from it, maybe you don’t, but it’s just such a cool thing to be able to spend time with great baseball players.”
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