MLB: Ranking the decade’s best general managers
By Bill Felber
MLB: Ranking the decade’s best general managers
8. Brian Sabean, +66.9 games, (San Francisco, 2010-14)
As the decade’s only general manager with more than one World Series title to his credit, Sabean’s presence on this list is probably a foregone conclusion.
Sabean actually joined the Giants as GM in advance of the 1997 season, making him at the time of his departure the dean of the game’s general manager cadre. When the Giants won the 2010 World Series, Sabean’s mark was all over that accomplishment. He re-upped the heart of the team’s rotation Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum, then promoted both catcher Buster Posey and pitcher Madison Bumgarner for the season’s second half.
The net impact of Sabean’s short-term decisions on the Giants’ 2010 hopes was +19.6 games.
Posey and Bumgarner were both prominent holdover pieces of the team’s 2012 and 2014 World Series titles.
Sabean, who had started as a coach at the University of Tampa, was named the senior vice president of player personnel for the Giants in 1995, and general manager at the end of the 1996 season. He was promoted to team president following the 2014 World Series title, naming his top aide, Bobby Evans as his successor. He remained with the organization until the appointment of Farhan Zaidi as team president late in 2018.