The S.F. legend -- who was part of the Giants' consortium that made its pitch to Ohtani recently to get him to sign with the Bay Area squad -- got candid with The Athletic after S.F. lost its pursuit of the two-way superstar to LA ... making it clear he thinks his former team's city truly impacted Shohei's free agency decision.

"Something I think is noteworthy," the three-time World Series champ said, "something that unfortunately keeps popping up from players and even the players' wives is there's a bit of an uneasiness with the city itself, as far as the state of the city, with crime, with drugs."

"Whether that's all completely fair or not," Posey continued, "perception is reality."

Posey added that while Ohtani himself never explicitly brought any of it up -- he said there was definitely some in the designated hitter's camp who did have "some reservation with the state of the city right now."

Ohtani is one of many big-name free agents who have passed up the chance to play in San Francisco recently -- last year, the Giants famously missed out on Aaron Judge, and in the past, they've swung and missed on guys like Bryce Harper and Seiya Suzuki too.

In his interview with The Athletic, Posey made it known the perception of S.F.'s current lifestyle might have had a big role in all of it.

"It's a frustrating cycle, I think, and not just with baseball," Posey said. "Baseball is secondary to life and the important things in life. But as far as a free-agent pursuit goes, I have seen that it does affect things."

Ohtani ultimately ended up inking a 10-year, $700 million contract with a LA -- a deal that Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi said this week was nearly identical to the one S.F. had offered.

Posey said he eventually hopes the tide will end up turning ... adding, "It's been well documented that we've come up short for a number of years now."