Buster Posey will put on his customary helmet, shinguards and chest protector when he gets behind the plate in a few months. But he won’t get any additional safeguards in the rule book.

Although the Giants planned to lobby for a rule change that would protect catchers from being targeted in home-plate collisions, the matter didn’t come up at the winter meetings last week in Dallas. The conversation never got past Joe Torre, Major League Baseball’s vice president for on-field operations.

Torre heard out Giants manager Bruce Bochy in several phone calls last season but declined to recommend that the rules committee take up the matter.

“Well, listen, I knew it was more emotional than anything else,” Torre said last week. “None of us like to see that. But I really haven’t heard anything that would encourage me to change anything or recommend a change. Being a catcher for a lot of years, I knew what the consequences were.”

The play was a perfect storm that happened in the 12th inning of a tie game on May 25 against the Florida Marlins. Rookie baserunner Scott Cousins tried to tag up on a fly ball that Nate Schierholtz caught in medium right field. Knowing that Schierholtz has a strong arm, Cousins said he figured the ball would beat him to the plate.

But the throw short-hopped in front of Posey and he wasn’t able to make a clean stop. As the catcher turned, Cousins clearly went inside the baseline while spearing him with his right shoulder. Posey had dropped to one knee and his left ankle was pinned underneath him as the force of the blow toppled him over. His fibula sustained a fracture and he tore three ankle ligaments, which required two surgical procedures to fix. Posey couldn’t walk for three months.

Posey hasn’t returned Cousins’ apologetic phone calls, and although teammates called it a clean play, Posey and club officials pointed out that the runner had a clear lane to the plate. He chose to take out Posey instead of slide.

Bochy has lobbied for a rule that would make it illegal for a runner to crash into a catcher when he has a path to the plate. Torre said he couldn’t get behind that idea.

“People have pointed out, `He was given a piece of the plate to slide to.’ And that’s true, he was,” Torre said. “But once (Posey) catches the ball, as a runner, you know that piece is gone. He’s going to block it.

“That play was not Buster’s fault. He’s trying to receive the ball, retain it, and here comes the runner.
If I were rounding third — well, if I were fast enough — I’d have to make a decision at a certain time. He had committed to break up the play.”

Posey’s long rehab has progressed well and he caught pitchers in the bullpen during instructional league in October and November. Although the Giants expect him to be ready this spring and to be their catcher on opening day, Bochy plans to give Posey plenty of starts at first base to rest his legs and keep his cleanup-hitting bat as fresh as possible.

The collision is just one more reason that the Giants, and other teams with offensively gifted catchers, will think harder about moving their young stars out of harm’s way.

Torre said he hasn’t closed the book on the issue, even if he doesn’t see himself reconsidering.

“We’ll continue to listen,” Torre said. “I’ll listen to anything that makes sense, and you know if it comes from people like them (Bochy and GM Brian Sabean), they always make a lot of sense. So I’ll listen.”