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The next big name to opt out of this season and take their families is Buster Posey, reports The Athletic’s Andrew Baggarly. He joins this seemingly unending list of major leaguers that won’t be back suiting up this season.
Buster Posey and his wife are adopting identical twin girls. That is why he has missed time in camp. The twins were born prematurely and stable but will be in NICU for some time. He is opting out of the season.
— Andrew Baggarly (@extrabaggs) July 10, 2020
The Giants catcher made a statement regarding this move, explaining that he and his wife are adopting premature twin girls and that the adoption was just finalized on Thursday. Posey has been missing from Giants Spring Training 2.0 for the past three workouts. In a statement to reporters in the beginning of this week, the World Series champion expressed his already heightened concern. “I think I want to see kind of how things progress here over the next couple of weeks,” he said previous to the news about his twin daughters. “I think it would be a little bit maybe naive or silly not to gauge what’s going on around you, not only around you here but paying attention to what’s happening in the country and different parts of the country.”
The veteran is still putting up solid numbers at the plate, slashing .257/.320/.368 with seven home runs in his eleventh year in the show, and a truncated season could have already hindered his performance. Now, the Giants will have to navigate this strange season without their mainstay backstop, if this season ever takes off at all. Posey signed an eight year, $159M contract with the Giants in 2013 that will carry him into the 2021 season, with a team option for 2022. Best wishes to him and his family on this beautiful new journey.