The Giants introduced Monday that they’ve fired president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi. Franchise icon Buster Posey will function the group’s new president of baseball operations, the group introduced. Posey is one among six on the Giants’ board of administrators and can now oversee the roster’s development as nicely. Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle first reported that Zaidi, who was below contract by the 2025 season (with a 2026 possibility), was being dismissed.
“We admire Farhan’s dedication to the group and his ardour for making an impression in our group throughout six years with the Giants,” chairman Greg Johnson mentioned in assertion inside at the moment’s press launch. “Finally, the outcomes haven’t been what we had hoped, and whereas that accountability is shared by all of us, we’ve determined {that a} change is important. Whereas these choices should not simple, we consider it’s time for brand new management to raise our group so we will constantly contend for championships. I want Farhan and his household nothing however the very best transferring ahead.
“As we glance forward, I’m excited to share that Buster Posey will now tackle a larger position as the brand new President of Baseball Operations. We’re searching for somebody who can outline, direct and lead this franchise’s baseball philosophy and we really feel that Buster is the right match. Buster has the demeanor, intelligence and drive to do that job, and we’re assured that he and [manager] Bob Melvin will work collectively to deliver profitable baseball to San Francisco.”
The writing has in some ways been on the wall for Zaidi for a while now. The 2024 season was considered as a pivotal one for the Giants, who unsuccessfully pursued Shohei Ohtani over the offseason and as an alternative wound up signing Matt Chapman, Blake Snell, Jung Hoo Lee, Jorge Soler and Jordan Hicks as they regarded to get again on monitor after consecutive dropping seasons. The Giants received 107 video games below Zaidi in 2021 however haven’t had a profitable season below his watch in any other case. The shortage of constant outcomes prompted many to wonder if Zaidi may survive one other sub-.500 season.
Probably the most telltale portent for change, nevertheless, got here late this summer season, when the Giants introduced a six-year, $151MM contract extension for the aforementioned Chapman. Signing the star third baseman on the heels of a down season proved to be a house run swing for Zaidi & Co., as Chapman rebounded with probably the greatest seasons of his profession. Nonetheless, The Athletic reported not lengthy after the extension was accomplished that Posey had stepped in to run level on negotiations after possession had develop into “annoyed” with the shortage of early progress in talks.
The Giants had loads of particular person participant acquisition successes below Zaidi’s watch. San Francisco grew to become a vacation spot for pitchers trying to flip their careers round, as veterans like Kevin Gausman, Carlos Rodon, Anthony DeSclafani, Drew Smyly, Drew Pomeranz and Derek Holland all sturdy seasons at Oracle Park earlier than cashing in on extra profitable offers (Holland’s in a one-year return to the Giants that didn’t pan out as nicely). Gausman’s resurgence, specifically, proved to be a serious win for the Giants. He thrived on a one-year deal in the course of the Covid-shortened 2020 season, accepted a qualifying supply that winter, and was dominant in a full season in ’21.
That record of successes can be emblematic of one other hallmark of Zaidi’s tenure, nevertheless: an aversion to long-term spending. The Giants opted to let Gausman stroll in free company fairly than commit long-term. His five-year, $110MM cope with the Blue Jays has been a cut price for Toronto up to now. Equally, the Giants let Carlos Rodon depart after his personal large season in orange and black, though the early returns on his six-year cope with the Yankees may need the Giants feeling higher about that call than the Gausman one. The Giants did pay as much as preserve DeSclafani, who returned on a three-year, $36MM contract after a terrific 2021 season, however that contract nearly instantly went south.
On the position-player facet of issues, the Giants have struggled to draw hitters to their spacious park and to develop key contributors. Zaidi’s early tenure included some unmitigated successes by way of cut price bin purchasing. He acquired Mike Yastrzemski, LaMonte Wade Jr., Donovan Solano, Thairo Estrada and Darin Ruf for subsequent to nothing. All grew to become very important regulars or position gamers for a number of years. However the Giants have been additionally unable to land large fish like Aaron Choose and Bryce Harper, whereas the tried 13-year cope with Carlos Correa was scuttled by medical issues.
The Giants have commonly pivoted to Plan B or Plan C after lacking on big-name free brokers — as they did final yr following Ohtani’s deal in L.A. — and have a a lot spottier monitor file on these offers. Soler, Mitch Haniger and Michael Conforto all fell nicely shy of being the middle-of-the-order presences the Giants hoped. It’s too early to inform how the aforementioned six-year deal for Lee will play out after his season ended early because of shoulder surgical procedure, however the sheer magnitude of that $113MM contract was a shock to some within the trade.
The missteps weren’t all restricted to the group’s pursuit of huge bats. San Francisco has additionally had its share of misses on smaller-scale free agent investments; Tommy La Stella, Luke Jackson, Ross Stripling and Tom Murphy have all fallen shy of expectations. La Stella was launched earlier than the ultimate season of his three-year deal. Jackson and Stripling have been shipped out in salary-dump offers. Murphy’s signing — which helped push Joey Bart out of city and over to Pittsburgh, the place he loved a breakout yr — has been a flop up to now and will make him a wage dump candidate himself this winter.
Posey will now be tasked with engineering a turnaround on the stadium he referred to as dwelling for everything of his 12-year taking part in profession. His instantaneous ascension to president of baseball operations is much extra stunning than Zaidi’s departure. Posey joined the Giants’ board of administrators barely two years in the past, when he bought a minority stake within the group.
On the time, it gave the impression to be little greater than a ceremonial transfer from a beloved participant. Posey even said on the time of the announcement that he was not taking over any sort of entrance workplace position and that he was viewing his new position as “one other alternative for me to study extra concerning the recreation, extra concerning the enterprise and actually commit my time to a company in a metropolis that I’ve grown to like.”
What occurs from right here stays to be seen, in fact. Johnson’s assertion didn’t point out that normal supervisor Pete Putila is in any hazard of being dismissed, although even when he stays on board, he’d be second on the group’s baseball operations hierarchy, behind Posey. Longtime assistant normal supervisor Jeremy Shelley stays with the membership as nicely. Nonetheless, at the moment’s press launch did embrace a reference to conducting searches for any “open positions.” Nearly any change on the prime of a baseball operations division is finally accompanied by some personnel modifications down the ladder, so it stays potential there are nonetheless some alterations to the tapestry of the Giants’ entrance workplace which have but to come back to mild.
Posey, in fact, has no baseball operations expertise exterior of no matter interactions occurred between him and Chapman earlier this summer season. He’s probably been at the very least tangentially concerned in some roster development components since buying his stake within the membership, however he’s by no means held any kind of baseball operations title and kind of went straight from the group’s on a regular basis catcher to minority proprietor, buying his share of the membership lower than one calendar yr after taking part in his ultimate recreation.
It’s uncommon, albeit not unprecedented in at the moment’s recreation, for somebody to be tabbed as a baseball operations chief with zero prior baseball operations expertise. Brokers Brodie Van Wagenen and Dave Stewart (a former large leaguer himself, in fact) have been employed as the overall managers for the Mets and Diamondbacks throughout the previous decade, respectively. Neither lasted various seasons of their posts, nevertheless. Present Rangers normal supervisor Chris Younger pitched within the majors till 2017 and was working within the league’s central places of work as MLB’s senior vp of on-field operations, initiatives and technique when Texas employed him as GM below then-president Jon Daniels.
Posey’s ascension to the highest of a baseball operations division is much extra sudden and fast than any of these executives. Van Wagenen had been one of many highest-profile brokers within the sport for greater than a decade, negotiating numerous contracts — albeit on the opposite facet of the proverbial desk. Stewart was retired as a participant for almost 20 years and, like Van Wagenen, had been representing gamers for fairly a while, giving him loads of familiarity with that facet of the sport. Younger wasn’t a lot additional faraway from his taking part in days however had spent two years working within the league’s central places of work. He was additionally employed because the No. 2 government on the Rangers’ entrance workplace chart and spent greater than two years working below Daniels earlier than being promoted to the highest put up in Arlington.
Posey will now be tasked with revamping a Giants roster that has commonly lacked star energy, relied closely on platoons and has too typically been permeated by growing older gamers with waning athleticism. He’ll concurrently have to construct up a farm system that’s considered lackluster and work to enhance a participant growth operation that has continuously seen prime prospects both underperform or fizzle out. Homegrown skills like Logan Webb, Kyle Harrison, Heliot Ramos, Tyler Fitzgerald and Patrick Bailey all seem like viable core items. However plenty of the group’s different prime prospects over time — Bart, Luis Matos, Marco Luciano, Hunter Bishop, Will Bednar, Casey Schmitt — haven’t developed as hoped.
The $151MM Chapman extension alerts that even with this modification in baseball operations, the Giants aren’t planning on taking any form of step again. They’ll look to get again into competitors within the Nationwide League West subsequent yr and accomplish that alongside a perennial Dodgers powerhouse, an ascendant Padres membership and a D-backs squad that went to the World Sequence as lately as final season. It’s a tall order for any government, not to mention a rookie one — although Posey’s final rookie season definitely produced sturdy outcomes.