Farhan Zaidi is the 2021 MLB Executive of the Year.
The Giants’ president of baseball operations won the award after voting among the 30 clubs, each of which cast a ballot at the culmination of the regular season. The Tampa Bay Rays’ Erik Neander placed second and Milwaukee’s David Stearns placed third.
“On behalf of the San Francisco Giants organization, we congratulate Farhan Zaidi on being named Major League Baseball’s 2021 Executive of the Year,” said Giants Chairman Greg Johnson. “This is a tremendous and well-deserved honor and a reflection of the talent, hard work and dedication of our entire baseball operations department. Farhan continues to strengthen our organization both on the field and in the front office and we are proud that his work is recognized by his peers throughout baseball.”
Zaidi helped construct a roster and build a coaching staff that went a MLB-best 107-55 despite modest preseason expectations.
Some of Zaidi’s masterstrokes include trading Shaun Anderson for LaMonte Wade Jr. before spring training, signing Dominic Leone to a minor league contract, signing Anthony DeSclafani and Alex Wood to short term deals and trading for Kris Bryant at the deadline. And those don’t include previous moves Zaidi made prior to 2021, like the Mike Yastrzemski trade or the Kevin Gausman signing.
Zaidi empowered manager Gabe Kapler to assemble the largest coaching staff in baseball, one that’s diverse and forward-thinking but without much prior experience.
The results were clear.
San Francisco paced MLB for most of the year, played at least .600 ball in every month of the season and ended the Los Angeles Dodgers’ reign of eight straight National League West titles.
The success started at the top with Zaidi, the most effective executive of 2021.
