The long Bruce Bochy goodbye is over.
The (seemingly) long Farhan Zaidi hellos are beginning.
The Giants president of baseball operations is kicking off the managerial search this week and beginning with two familiar names: Hensley “Bam Bam” Meulens and Ron Wotus, the Giants’ incumbent bench and third-base coaches, respectively.
After those two get their shots, Zaidi estimated he would interview six-to-eight external candidates for a position that likely will take a while to fill, considering there will be candidates on playoffs teams whose interviews will have to wait.
Also potentially slowing down the process will be the fact the Giants are trying to hire a general manager, as well, a process Zaidi said would be conducted concurrently.
“There’s no favorite,” Zaidi said, referring to both jobs, at an end-of-season news conference Tuesday. “Let alone somebody who has either job in the bag. It’s going to be a true process. And we’re trying to build up a list of compelling candidates to go through.”
Both Meulens and Wotus are well-established coaches with impressive resumes, yet neither has been a major league manager before. The trend has been for new managers to be young and inexperienced; the retreads are fading from the game.
Could the Giants, who this season had a legendary manager with 25 years experience, go to a rookie?
Zaidi said having managed before is a “potential advantage,” but did not say it’s either a deal-breaker or hugely important. He referenced helping to hire Dave Roberts in Los Angeles, a move toward inexperience that paid off.
“There is a leap of faith that you have to take if you’re going to hire a manager who hasn’t done it before,” Zaidi said. “But if nobody ever did it, then we would just have the same pool of candidates. And nobody would ever get another opportunity.”
For those trying to read tea leaves, Zaidi did mention that “a lot of times guys do better and have more traction their second time around because of the lessons that they’ve learned.”
Sunday the Giants saluted Bochy farewell, and dozens of his former players returned because of the relationships Bochy helped forge. When interviewing candidates, that’s atop Zaidi’s list for qualities he’s looking for.
Not just with players, but with the front office.
“In the modern game, having a manager that can have productive and trusting relationships on both avenues is really important,” he said.
All of this will be conducted without a GM, a strange dynamic historically in baseball. It sounds as if the general manager will be more front-office brain than traditional transaction-producer. The Giants will be looking for someone for input on decisions, not someone who will be the face of the trades they make.
If it sounds vague, it’s intentional.
“I think by not defining it, specifically, it opens up the candidate pool,” Zaidi said. “Whether it’s somebody that has experience and expertise in scouting or player development or administration, whatever their strengths are. Hopefully we can complement each other.”
While Wotus and Meulens are getting interviews, Zaidi said the remaining coaches “are free to pursue other opportunities in the interim.”
