Giants pitching director Brian Bannister has not been with the Giants in person all season due to his decision not to get vaccinated for COVID-19, per a report from Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic.
Major League Baseball requires all coaches and on-field staff to be up to date on their mRNA vaccinations, meaning that Bannister has had to exclusively be in contact with the team remotely throughout 2022.
Bannister is currently the only vaccine holdout on the Giants’ staff. Many in a similar position around baseball have been fired over their refusal to comply with the mandate, but president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi has made a commitment to keep Bannister around.
“It’s been challenging,” Zaidi told The Athletic. “But because of how valuable he’s been to the organization, we’ve been committed to figuring out a way to keep him involved. The logistical realities of the situation underscore how valuable and important we think he is. It’s just something we’ll have to continue to manage.”
It’s unclear how long this mandate will last, and there is a good chance Bannister may be able to resume in-person coaching in 2023. Many government and private businesses have amended their vaccine mandates in recent months, something Giants pitching coach Andrew Bailey has lobbied MLB to follow.
“Policies should be changed to be up to date,” Bailey told The Athletic. “I have no problem talking to them about it and defending Banny so he can be a part of our organization in the capacity for which he was hired. I know it was his decision (to decline the vaccine) and these are the rules we currently have to abide by. But I’ll continue to be an advocate for Banny.”
Bannister, 41, is a former major league pitcher who spent 2016-19 as a scout and coach with the Red Sox organization before joining Gabe Kapler’s staff in 2020.
