Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
It will not simply be the Giants picking a manager; that manager will have to pick the Giants, too.
The Giants have an opening and are competing with the Angels, Pirates, Royals, Cubs, Padres and Mets, who fired Mickey Callaway on Thursday morning. The Giants are not the most attractive gig on the market, which makes Farhan Zaidi’s job a bit tougher; he will have to conduct his interviews as quickly as possible – while also searching for a GM – and hope whoever is his final selection hasn’t already found a new home.
Barring something unexpected, Gabe Kapler is the lone manager awaiting his fate, with the Phillies still not announcing their decision on the second-year skipper.
The only confirmed candidates for the Giants are in-house, incumbent bench coach Hensley Meulens and third-base coach Ron Wotus. Outside options abound and probably will include Yankees bench coach Josh Bard, Angels adviser Eric Chavez and Dodgers adviser Raul Ibanez, all who have a history with Zaidi.
On Tuesday at his end-of-season news conference, Zaidi said there is no front-runner but he expected to sit down with a total of eight-to-10 potential managers. The process cannot be expedited much, with some candidates busy with playoff teams, but if Zaidi waits for one, he’ll have to hope that one picks the Giants, too.
The Padres and Cubs offer the jobs with the easiest paths to winning, San Diego with loads of young talent and the best farm system in baseball, Chicago just three years removed from a World Series. The Angels and Mets are probably in the same class as San Francisco, but those jobs are more win-now than the Giants’.
