Zaidi’s arrival with the San Francisco Giants creates a management structure that appears to isolate both VP Brian Sabean and field manager Bruce Bochy
With the hiring of Farhan Zaidi as president of baseball operations, the San Francisco Giants are well on their way to developing the most layered and most confusing management setup in the Major Leagues.
When that management hierarchy is complete – and it isn’t yet – the question will be whether it functions like the proverbial well-oiled machine, or more like something designed by Rube Goldberg.
Zaidi was hired away from his position as general manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers Tuesday to become the Giants’ president of baseball operations. In that capacity, he is expected to oversee a full range of duties including the team’s scouting, international, player development and data analysis departments.
In making the announcement, chief executive Larry Baer did not disclose Zaidi’s salary, but it obviously will involve a substantial upgrade from the undisclosed amount he made with the Dodgers. Among teams with a president of baseball operations, the best-paid is Zaidi’s former boss, Andrew Friedman, who is working on a deal with the Dodgers that pays him $7 million annually.
Baer has made it plain that the Giants are seeking to shift their profile from a team reliant on old-school scouting-based methods to one emphasizing new-school data-analysis techniques. Under Zaidi, the Dodgers became famous for that approach, employing one of the game’s largest data analysis departments and – according to rumor – providing support to field manager Dave Roberts that fell somewhere between strategy suggestions and strategy dictates.
Assuming Zaidi was brought in to San Francisco to do the same thing, it will present challenges up and down the team’s structure.
Begin at the top. His title and the fact that he will report directly to Baer make it clear that Zaidi is being given a position superior to long-time Giants front office boss Brian Sabean. As general manager of the Giants from October 1996 through the 2014 season, Sabean produced three World Series champions and attained something approaching local cult figure status. He became vice president when Bobby Evans was named GM in October of 2014.
When Evans was released in September, Baer temporarily re-titled Sabean as executive vice president of baseball operations. Baer indicated at the time he expected Sabean to return to his VP duties once a new GM was hired, focusing on “more international work” and “his scouting roots.”
Yet the hiring of Zaidi as president rather than GM appears to put Sabean in the untenable position of subservience to a guy whose arch-rival he was only a few months ago, and who operates in an utterly different management milieu. Short of literally shipping Sabean to the Dominican Republic, it’s hard to see how that arrangement can last. In fact it only needs to last one more season; Sabean’s contract expires at the end of 2019. In the interim he is expected to be permitted to bypass Zaidi and also report directly to Baer.
At his introductory press conference, and with Sabean in the audience, Zaidi said he wants their relationship to develop into a “collaborative process.” He added, “the days that a general manager goes into his office and locks the door and come out to announce three trades to his staff … that doesn’t work anymore.” Baer made a point of telling reporters that Sabean would remain with the team, but did not elaborate on what duties he would be assigned.
Also remaining to be seen is how Zaidi functions with field manager Bruce Bochy, who’s been in San Francisco nearly as long as Sabean, and with as much success. Is it possible to imagine Zaidi’s front office sending advice on game-related decisions to Bochy, given his 24 seasons of experience on the bench?
Asked about that potential conflict, Zaidi paid Bochy proper deference, calling him “a Hall of Fame manager.” While terming the idea of a clash of approaches as “a convenient narrative,” he added that “it’s not my goal to armchair manage; I want somebody who feels empowered to make those decisions.”
The most likely outcome of that potential conflict is a one-year truce followed by Bochy’s retirement, resignation or replacement. Bochy will turn 64 shortly after opening day and, like Sabean, is entering the final year of his deal. Since Bochy and Zaidi do not appear to represent a mind meld, it seems likely that Zaidi will want to find his own field general, and that means an exit for Bochy, preferably – given his popularity – on graceful terms
Finally, Zaidi’s hiring leaves open the question of who will be the team’s general manager. He was not hired to do that job – it would have been unthinkable for the Dodgers to allow him to interview for the same position with the Giants that he held with them. Yet at his introductory press conference, Zaidi was noncommittal, and appeared to leave open the option of handling those duties himself, at least in the short term. “That will be a function of the timetable and finding the right person,” he said of hiring a GM.
In short, here’s the San Francisco Giants management structure, subject, obviously, to change on short notice.
Larry Baer is CEO. Farhan Zaidi is president of baseball ops, reporting to Baer. Brian Sabean is, for the moment, vice president of baseball ops, probably assigned either to travel the world or the bushes, and until further notice continues to also report to Baer. He’ll do that for a year at most and then either be retired or given a sinecure “senior advisor” job. The general manager spot is vacant. Bochy is field manager, presumably through October of 2019…but as with Sabean that is also subject to change on short notice.