In new role, former catcher Buster Posey plans to bring Giants back to respectability, winning

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — In recent weeks and months, Buster Posey began to ponder the possibility of taking on something he insisted he'd never do in joining the baseball operations department for the Giants.

The star catcher said he wouldn't do it upon retiring three years ago. Yet Posey ultimately dearly missed being part of a team.

Long the face of a franchise for San Francisco with three World Series titles to his name, Posey will now be calling the shots on what the club is going to look like going forward.

The 37-year-old retired catcher was introduced as president of baseball operations on Tuesday following the dismissal of Farhan Zaidi a day earlier.

“As far as general philosophy as many of you know me a lot of my basic principles are pretty simple,” Posey said. “I want us to be known as a team that’s the ultimate prepared team, one that’s fundamentals are held at a really high standard and ultimately this is all about the players.”

Posey's first order of business will be hiring a general manager, as Pete Putila won't return in that role but the plan is for him to take on different duties. Posey also noted his admiration for manager Bob Melvin, but that his contract status beyond the 2025 season isn't an immediate top priority.

“It’s Buster Posey, he’s the Giants, that’s a big deal,” Melvin said. "When somebody like Buster asks for the ball you give it to him.”

Melvin figures the Giants are likely to be “probably a little bit more well-rounded team” than the group he guided in his first season as skipper after leaving the San Diego Padres. San Francisco, which won a franchise-record 107 games and the NL West in Posey's final season of 2021, wound up 80-82 with one more victory than in Gape Kapler's last year of 2023.

All-Star pitcher Logan Webb can't wait to see Posey regularly back in his element.

“Buster is one of those guys that makes everyone in the room perk up when he was in the room and you hear his voice,” Webb said in a text message. “I was lucky enough to play with him and see what he brought into the clubhouse as a player each and every day. Now he gets to truly mold a team the way he thinks baseball should look and how it should be played and I’m excited for that. I think it’s a very good thing for the Giants moving forward.”

Posey “has a three-year deal with no contingencies or anything,” according to Giants Chairman Greg Johnson. The seven-time All-Star also will remain on the ownership board even given his new position with Johnson noting that whenever there’s a conflict, someone just steps out of a meeting when necessary.

Another order of business will be bringing back left-hander and two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell, who in March received a $62 million, two-year contract with an opt out. He overcame a slow start and injuries to go 5-3 with a 3.12 ERA over 20 starts.

“Blake's one of the premier starting pitchers in the big leagues, has been for a while," Posey said. “He’s obviously somebody that's going to be a priority for us to take a hard look at and make a decision as a group.”

Posey was instrumental in helping finalize Gold Glove third baseman Matt Chapman's $151 million, six-year contract early last month that keeps him with the Giants from 2025-30 without going through free agency.

In taking this job, Posey needed the support of wife Kristen as the couple have four children. They moved back to the Bay Area following a stay in Posey's native Georgia after his playing career ended, but never with this plan in mind.

“I think she could just tell how excited I was about this opportunity,” he said.

Posey was the Giants' fifth overall pick in the first round of the 2008 draft and earned 2010 NL Rookie of the Year honors before being named 2012 NL MVP as San Francisco won the second of its three every-other-year World Series titles.

He also is working to complete his degree in social science from Florida State via online courses and has a semester remaining.

“I'm chipping away at it,” he said.

By building a strong and experienced staff around him Posey hopes to empower everyone in the organization from the lower minor-league levels to the very top without looking over shoulders of those who work for him.

Posey stressed how baseball connects generations of family members and strangers alike while acknowledging the game's entertainment value.

"We’re in a memory-making business," he said.

Posey envisions a blend of both scouting and analytics for the Giants' front office.

“Most definitely going to use analytics, analytics are here and they're here to stay, and it would be a mistake to say that you're not going to use that information.”

Johnson said he and Posey will find others to complement Posey's skill set and that the former first-round draft pick asked for the chance to be more hands on in building the club — “it was really Buster's desire to be accountable 100% for the baseball and that spoke a lot to me.”

“This certainly is a momentous day for the Giants organization,” Johnson said. “... We all know Buster as the player, all the tremendous memories that we had with him in leading us to three World Series, the Hall of Fame, MVP career. But those aren't the reasons that we're here today. I think for me and for the board what we have observed with Buster in working with him over the last three years is competitive fire he has to win, it didn't end when he took his jersey off, it's as strong today as ever.”

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB

San Francisco Giants baseball team chairman Greg Johnson listens to speakers during news conference in San Francisco, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

San Francisco Giants new president of baseball operations Buster Posey, right, speaks next to manager Bob Melvin during a news conference in San Francisco, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (Stephen Lam/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

San Francisco Giants manager Bob Melvin listens during a press conference introducing former catcher Buster Posey as the team's president of baseball operations, Tuesday. Oct. 1, 2024, in San Francisco. (Stephen Lam/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

San Francisco Giants new president of baseball operations Buster Posey, center, speaks between manager Bob Melvin, left, and chairman Greg Johnson during a news conference in San Francisco, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

San Francisco Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey speaks during a news conference in San Francisco, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

San Francisco Giants manager Bob Melvin, left, listens as president of baseball operations Buster Posey speaks during a news conference in San Francisco, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

San Francisco Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey speaks with people after a news conference in San Francisco, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

San Francisco Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey speaks during a news conference in San Francisco, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

A photograph of San Francisco Giants President of Baseball Operations Buster Posey is seen on the Jumbotron at Oracle Park ahead of his introductory press conference in San Francisco, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (Stephen Lam/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

San Francisco Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey speaks during a news conference in San Francisco, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

San Francisco Giants new president of baseball operations Buster Posey, right, speaks next to manager Bob Melvin during a news conference in San Francisco, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

San Francisco Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey, left, smiles next to chairman Greg Johnson during a news conference in San Francisco, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Federal agents carrying out immigration arrests in Minnesota's Twin Cities region already shaken by the fatal shooting of a woman rammed the door of one home Sunday and pushed their way inside, part of what the Department of Homeland Security has called its largest enforcement operation ever.

In a dramatic scene similar to those playing out across Minneapolis, agents captured a man in the home just minutes after pepper spraying protesters outside who had confronted the heavily armed federal agents. Along the residential street, protesters honked car horns, banged on drums and blew whistles in attempts to disrupt the operation.

Video of the clash taken by The Associated Press showed some agents pushing back protesters while a distraught woman later emerged from the house with a document that federal agents presented to arrest the man. Signed by an immigration officer, the document — unlike a warrant signed by a judge — does not authorize forced entry into a private residence. A warrant signed by an immigration officer only authorizes arrest in a public area.

Immigrant advocacy groups have conducted extensive “know-your-rights” campaigns urging people not to open their doors unless agents have a court order signed by a judge.

But within minutes of ramming the door in a neighborhood filled with single-family homes, the handcuffed man was led away.

More than 2,000 immigration arrests have been made in Minnesota since the enforcement operation began at the beginning of December, said Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told Fox News on Sunday that the administration would send additional federal agents to Minnesota to protect immigration officers and continue enforcement.

The Twin Cities — the latest target in President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement campaign — is bracing for what is next after 37-year-old Renee Good was shot and killed by an immigration officer on Wednesday.

“We’re seeing a lot of immigration enforcement across Minneapolis and across the state, federal agents just swarming around our neighborhoods,” said Jason Chavez, a Minneapolis city councilmember. “They’ve definitely been out here.”

Chavez, the son of Mexican immigrants who represents an area with a growing immigrant population, said he is closely monitoring information from chat groups about where residents are seeing agents operating.

People holding whistles positioned themselves in freezing temperatures on street corners Sunday in the neighborhood where Good was killed, watching for any signs of federal agents.

More than 20,000 people have taken part in a variety of trainings to become “observers” of enforcement activities in Minnesota since the 2024 election, said Luis Argueta, a spokesperson for Unidos MN, a local human rights organization .

“It’s a role that people choose to take on voluntarily, because they choose to look out for their neighbors,” Argueta said.

The protests have been largely peaceful, but residents remained anxious. On Monday, Minneapolis public schools will start offering remote learning for the next month in response to concerns that children might feel unsafe venturing out while tensions remain high.

Many schools closed last week after Good’s shooting and the upheaval that followed.

While the enforcement activity continues, two of the state’s leading Democrats said that the investigation into Good's shooting death should not be overseen solely by the federal government.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and U.S. Sen. Tina Smith said in separate interviews Sunday that state authorities should be included in the investigation because the federal government has already made clear what it believes happened.

“How can we trust the federal government to do an objective, unbiased investigation, without prejudice, when at the beginning of that investigation they have already announced exactly what they saw — what they think happened," Smith said on ABC’s "This Week."

The Trump administration has defended the officer who shot Good in her car, saying he was protecting himself and fellow agents and that Good had “weaponized” her vehicle.

Todd Lyons, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, defended the officer on Fox News Channel’s “The Sunday Briefing.”

"That law enforcement officer had milliseconds, if not short time to make a decision to save his life and his other fellow agents,” he said.

Lyons also said the administration’s enforcement operations in Minnesota wouldn't be needed “if local jurisdictions worked with us to turn over these criminally illegal aliens once they are already considered a public safety threat by the locals.”

The killing of Good by an ICE officer and the shooting of two people by federal agents in Portland, Oregon, led to dozens of protests in cities across the country over the weekend, including New York, Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and Oakland, California.

Contributing were Associated Press journalists Giovanna Dell’Orto in Minneapolis; Thomas Strong in Washington; Bill Barrow in Atlanta; Christopher Weber in Los Angeles; and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio.

A woman gets into an altercation with a federal immigration officer as officers make an arrest Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)

A federal immigration officer deploys pepper spray as officers make an arrest Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)

A family member, center, reacts after federal immigration officers make an arrest Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Bystanders are treated after being pepper sprayed as federal immigration officers make an arrest Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)

A family member reacts after federal immigration officers make an arrest Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Federal agents look on after detaining a person during a patrol in Minneapolis, Minn., Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press via AP)

Bystanders react after a man was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents during a traffic stop, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Robbinsdale, Minn. (AP Photo/John Locher)

People stand near a memorial at the site where Renee Good was fatally shot by an ICE agent, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jen Golbeck)

A man looks out of a car window after being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents during a traffic stop, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Robbinsdale, Minn. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Border Patrol agents detain a man, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)

People shout toward Border Patrol agents making an arrest, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)

Demonstrators protest outside the White House in Washington, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who fatally shot Renee Good in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey holds a news conference on Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jen Golbeck)

Protesters react as they visit a makeshift memorial during a rally for Renee Good, who was fatally shot by an ICE officer earlier in the week, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)