Why Javier Lopez was drawn to role with Buster Posey’s Giants front office originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
SAN FRANCISCO — Team executives tend to move around in packs at the MLB meetings held every offseason, and even though it’s been more than a year as an executive, Buster Posey still draws plenty of attention when he walks through hallways with the rest of his front office.
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But when Posey was walking through a Las Vegas hotel at the GM Meetings last November, he actually wasn’t the Giants executive with the most rings.
That honor belongs to Javier Lopez, who won a title with the Boston Red Sox early in his career and then was instrumental in helping the Giants win three in five years. The left-hander is tied with Mookie Betts and former teammate Pablo Sandoval (a member of the 2021 Atlanta Braves) for the most titles won by a player who debuted this century. The goal now is to break that tie as an executive.
Earlier this offseason, Lopez and Curt Casali joined the baseball operations group as advisors. It was a move that was a long time coming for Lopez, who retired in 2016 and successfully jumped to the broadcast booth. He had been talking to Posey, a close friend, for months about coming on board.
“When he puts his name on it you want to see him be successful,” Lopez said on Thursday’s Giants Talk podcast. “We went back and forth over the last year that he has taken over as president of baseball ops as to how can I be a value add, and we’re kind of trying this out right now for this year. Not only myself, but Curt Casali has come on board as well.
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“We’re going to just try to offer different views and opinions and kind of just see where that ends up at the end of the day. I thought it would be a nice way to kind of dip my toe in the water as far as front office work and trying to just get the Giants back to where the Giants want to be.”
With Lopez and Casali joining, the Giants have eight advisors to Posey, general manager Zack Minasian and the rest of the front office. It’s a group of people who long have been close to Posey, but also one that covers a lot of blind spots.
Bruce Bochy and Dusty Baker are former big league managers headed to the Hall of Fame. John Barr was a longtime scout, and the man who drafted Posey nearly two decades ago. Bobby Evans, the former Giants GM, provides a front office perspective, and Posey’s former agent, Jeff Berry, can give a view from the other side of the negotiating table. Ron Wotus was the longest-tenured coach in franchise history and also has a unique perspective on prospects since he still works with them at Giants affiliates.
Lopez and Casali are the newcomers to front office life, with one being a former pitcher and the other a former catcher. In initial discussions about free agents and trade targets, Lopez has mostly focused on the players he knows.
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“For me right now, the focus has been more on the pitching side,” Lopez said. “(It’s) just being able to watch a player and have certain aspects come out, whether it’s something mechanical, whether it’s something physical, or whether it’s something as easy as a pitch mix that just maybe needs to get changed.”
The Lopez addition was not a surprise to his former teammates. He was the rare reliever who became a team leader, and he won the Willie Mac Award in his final season with the Giants. Years of broadcasting have helped Lopez keep up with the developments in the game over the past decade, and that won’t go away.
Lopez still plans to be part of the mix for NBC Sports Bay Area’s game broadcasts, filling in occasionally for Mike Krukow, but his main focus in 2026 is helping Posey behind the scenes. He noted that he hasn’t forgotten what it was like to win in front of huge crowds at Oracle Park. The goal is to help Posey bring those days back.
“This is always something that I kind of wanted to see if I’m going to be a value add — I’m going to do my best to do that,” he said. “It’s just an opportunity to kind of see what goes on behind the curtain.”
