NBC Sports Bay Area’s Alex Pavlovic reports that lifetime Giant and 3x World Series Champion Buster Posey is expected to hang up his cleats Thursday and retire after an amazing 12-year run.
Buster Posey isn't going out on top in a team sense, but throughout MLB history, there have been extremely few players who walked off into the sunset after a more impressive final individual season.
After opting out of the 2020 season, Posey returned to the Giants in 2021 and produced one of the best statistical seasons of his surefire Hall-of-Fame career. Appearing in 113 games, Posey slashed .304/.390/.499 with 18 home runs, 56 RBI and an OPS of .889. Only once in his career did he post a superior OPS (.957), and that was in 2012 when he was named the National League MVP.
In announcing his retirement on Thursday, Posey will cement his place as just one of seven players in the divisional era to hit .300 or better in his final career season, joining David Ortiz, Will Clark, Kirby Puckett, Lou Brock and Roberto Clemente.
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Additionally, since 1900, only six MLB players have posted a superior OPS-plus (which adjusts for the park and the league in which the player played) in their final career season than Posey's 2021 OPS-plus of 140.
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On both lists, Posey is surrounded by some of the best players in MLB history. In retirement, that's where he belongs.
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