Earlier this week we learned that Buster Posey was likely to undergo hip surgery. Today we learned what that means for him and the Giants, time-wise.
That information came via Giants vice president of baseball operations Brian Sabean, who said in an interview on KNBR that Posey’s right hip surgery is “imminent” and the recovery time is “six-plus months.” Sabean added that the surgery, more common for football players than baseball players, is not particularly complicated, even if the recovery time is long. He said “if you hit the mark well enough you should be able to perform in spring training and hopefully start the season on time.”
Those may be optimistic hopes. Even if the surgery was performed tomorrow -- Sabean said the team is trying to schedule it at the moment -- that puts his return to baseball activity in late Feburary, which is a couple of weeks after pitchers and catchers report and well after most players are back into offseason conditioning drills.
Posey, 31, is batting .286/.360/.386 with five home runs and 40 RBI in 439 plate appearances this season. Assuming it ends quickly, which it likely will, it will go down as his least productive season among those in which he has appeared in 100 games.