With Joe Mauer being inducted to the HOF earlier this year, it brings the question to whether or not Posey should see similar results as Mauer on the ballot. Mauer’s 1st year induction was somewhat of a surprise but was overall expected. Looking back on both of their respected careers, there is somewhat of an outlier between Mauer and Posey’s career being Posey’s overall longevity within the league and sudden retirement following the 2021 season. Considering the amount of time Posey has spent in the league and all the accolades he has racked up as well as 3 World Series’s during the 2010’s, do you think Posey will be a first ballot Hall of Famer?
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I’ve always thought Posey would be first ballot despite fairly modest career numbers. He’s fricking Buster Posey, after all. But when you put him next to Mauer like this, he’s an absolute shoo-in.
Posey and Yadi should be first ballot. Posey’s only argument against him is his longevity, but I think his accolades more than make up for that.
Buster is probably the only one from the 3 championships teams that gets in. Timmy was on the way as was Mad Bum but Buster should be in. Unless he’s on the ballot in a tough year or with another worthy catcher.
Busters for sure in. Mauer’s last like 6 years were all bad DH/1B years, Posey and Molina at least stayed as catchers.
Honestly I doubt he has enough for first ballot. He doesn’t have enough time. That said, he should make it in, aside from having every check box: ROY, MVP, GG, etc he also caught every pitch of three title post seasons. That is something.
I wouldn’t be shocked if he falls short on the first few ballots, but his resume may appeal to both old school and new school voters. His awards and three rings may compensate for those who don’t believe in things like WAR or fancy metrics, while his rate stats, metrics, and peak performance as a catcher may be enough for the more stats-centric voters to overlook the lack of longevity as well.
Players who linger on the ballot tend to lack a distinguishing factor that would make them a clear cut inductee. Perhaps they had a great peak but lack longevity; perhaps they were “merely” very good but did so consistently for 20+ years; perhaps they lacked bothlongevity and an MVP peak, but they did something no other player has ever done (e.g. win a gazillion gold gloves in a row at a premium position). All such routes either lack novelty, or have a level of non-traditional novelty that gets them in eventually.
Posey’s resume has a glaring “basically no modern catcher has ever had a career like this” novelty of MVP performance and being the best player on three championship teams in an era of World Series parity. Because no catcher has quite had a career like Posey and the position is one of the least represented in the Hall of Fame, perhaps voters will choose to immediately induct him into Cooperstown rather than nitpick his career for years before voting him in.
He’s a lock to get in, and a strong candidate to be first ballot. If you look at the 2025-26 classes and at the rest of the [2027 class](https://www.baseball-reference.com/awards/hof_2027.shtml), there isn’t much competition if you assume the obvious or deserving candidates get in the next couple years.
Posey played his entire career wearing the tools of ignorance. Mauer only played about half his career there, then moved to 1st.
If Mauer is a first ballot HOFer, than they need to open the doors early for Buster.
Stats don’t show he also caught a perfect game, and three no-nos.
Without a doubt
Easily
He’ll get in eventually but not as a 1st ballot. Mauer barely got in and clearly has better overall numbers than Posey.
Posey’s counting stats aren’t enough to get in, but has average stats are-the only problem is he retired before his decline years could negatively impact those averages. The result is a hall of famer, but not 1st ballot. He’s more comparable to Thurmon Munson than he is to Mauer.
If you let Posey in on the 1st ballot, you need to start letting in a lot more guys in on the 1st ballot. Votto has 20 more career WAR than Posey. Is he a 1st ballot too? Utley has 20 more WAR and only got 30% on the 1st ballot.
To me if Bauer is first ballot then Posey is first ballot. They have a pretty similar career numbers and Mauer leads Posey in a lot of categories because he played an extra 3 years, but Mauer also stopped catching like year 9 of his 15 year career. Posey helped lead the Giants to become a dynasty team which is rare in baseball. He’s also a pillar of the community outside of baseball. Posey also could’ve had a lot more gold gloves if Yadi didn’t play in the same division because they were pretty much 1A 1B defensively
I’d be surprised if he didn’t.
When it comes to offensive numbers, he is right there with Mauer on a per-season basis. When it comes to individual accolades, he has them and everyone knows he deserves to have more but simply played at the exact same time as a legendarily good defensive catcher. When it comes to team accolades – duh. Plus you can throw in the fact he not only caught the Giants through three World Series but also caught no hitters and perfect games.
One more “plus”: he played most of his HOF career after a career-threatening injury and was still an elite player when he retired, so people can rightfully assume he’d have still put up good numbers for a number of years had he chosen to keep playing.
There is nothing working against him besides missing nearly two seasons and retiring at 34 (which is made up for by the quality of his final season).
He was the superstar on three world championship teams. He hit .302 and played spectacular defense. If he’s not in the Hall of Fame then the voters are idiots (we all know that to be the case already).
MLB hates the Giants even Orlando Cepeda wasn’t a first ballot by nine votes. Posey was a quiet golden horse that played the game right. The Hall of Fame is a popularity contest that prioritizes flashy Red Sox, Dodgers, and Yankees players. He deserves to be voted in first round but I doubt it.