SF Giants Legend Buster Posey and Stanford Legend Andrew Luck Are in Similar Boats

Buster Posey and Andrew Luck have very similar tasks. Now, they are doing it at the same time.

Dec 12, 2025; San Francisco, California, USA; General manager of the Stanford Cardinal football program Andrew Luck looks on during the first quarter of the game between the Golden State Warriors and the Minnesota Timberwolves at Chase Center. Mandatory Credit: Robert Edwards-Imagn Images | Robert Edwards-Imagn Images

Bay Area sports are in a new era. Gone are the dominant championship teams, and in is the rebuilding era, where the task is to bring the Bay Area's most storied teams back to the national spotlight. From the three World Series championships from the San Francisco Giants to the perennial 10-win seasons from Stanford football, that era is one that Bay Area sports fans want back.

And it just so happens that in the case of the Giants and Stanford, both teams are being run by guys who were once considered the face of the franchise, or in Stanford's case, the face of the program.

Andrew Luck, Stanford's former star quarterback and a star NFL quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts, is back on The Farm in a different role, but one that still requires him to have a quarterback's mindset, as the football program's general manager.

For the San Francisco Giants, three-time World Series champion and future Hall of Fame catcher Buster Posey is doing the same thing in San Francisco. Fast forward to now, and the two executives see some similarities in each other.

"I think there’s some parallels for sure," Posey said recently on "The TK Show" podcast. "As you know, he stopped playing at a young age, and I stopped playing at a relatively young age. So, yeah, it’s kind of interesting to see that we’re both back with programs or organizations that mean a lot to us. And by all accounts from people I’ve talked to, I hear he’s doing a wonderful job."

Luck retired after sevens seasons, in the middle of his prime and after winning the 2018 AP Comeback Player of the Year, due to the abundance of injuries he suffered throughout his career and wanting to ensure a healthy life.

Posey, playing all 12 of his MLB seasons with the Giants, retired right after a dominant 2021 campaign in which he led the Giants to a franchise-best 107 wins and earned his seventh All-Star selection and second Comeback Player of the Year Award.

Then after three years away, Posey took the role as the Giants president of baseball operations, and is making moves to trying and pry the Giants out of their perpetual .500 seasons. They finished at exactly 81-81 last season, and after an offseason of work they're now projected for an 82-80 campaign by FanGraphs.

Luck, on the other hand, spent about five years away from the spotlight before returning to Stanford in his new role. But, Luck spent the 2023 and '24 seasons as a volunteer coach at Palo Alto High School, so his absence from football was really only three years.

Both Luck and Posey are early in their respective tenures, and while their goals have not been achieved yet, the early return on investment is showing that both the Giants and Cardinal are in good hands, and appear to be pointed in the right direction.