With the SF Giants in a tailspin and searching for answers, blame is being placed everywhere. In a recent interview on KNBR, Giants broadcaster Mike Krukow noted that Buster Posey’s goal to make the team more contact-oriented has not worked out.

Krukow was not being overly critical of Posey, but he definitely feels that the goal to make the team put the ball in play more often has not come to fruition:

Buster Posey said putting the ball in play would be the new Giants way.

Clearly, it's not happening, and Kruk is "perplexed." pic.twitter.com/jUqqZasJL4

— KNBR (@KNBR) August 13, 2025

Posey’s goal for SF Giants to become a contact-oriented team has not worked

Krukow said: “Think back to spring training. One of the things that Buster Posey said, philosophically, in regards to the offense [was] they were going to put the ball in play.” He went on to note that the team has been taking called strike three’s as of late and have not been consistently putting the ball in play as was promised.

The team ranks 27th in MLB with a .232 team batting average. It has been ugly and it does not seem like it is going to get any better soon because they do not have any hitters in their lineup who can be considered reliable contact hitters.

The only guy in their lineup who fits the role of a contact-first hitter is Jung Hoo Lee, but his batting average is .257 on the year when the team was surely hoping that he could consistently hit .280 or higher for them and serve as the everyday leadoff man.

Posey is not entirely to blame, but it is important to note that the main players in the lineup are not, and have never been, high contact hitters. Matt Chapman and Willy Adames are both notoriously streaky hitters who have a lot of power, but neither has been a hitter with a high batting average in their careers and both strike out quite a bit.

Posey swung a massive trade for Rafael Devers, a hitter with undisputed power but also a propensity for strikeouts. This team is not really built to consistently put the ball in play.

The front office is clearly trying to address this deficiency. In the MLB Draft earlier this summer, the team’s first round pick was touted as a high-contact hitter which was a theme they focused on throughout the draft.

They also tried to make this an emphasis in their trade’s at the deadline. Drew Gilbert, acquired in the Tyler Rogers trade, was thought of as a guy with solid bat-to-ball skills even though they have not shown in his brief MLB experience.

Clearly, this is an effort that is going to take time. Posey cannot come in, snap his fingers, and turn the team into a high-contact team overnight. It will take time to implement that shift in organizational philosophy, and it will take time for it to be felt at the big league level since most of the guys the Giants have a lot of money and years tied up in are not guys who put the ball in play consistently.