Farhan Zaidi, the man in charge of putting the Giants in position to return to contention, didn’t even get his own press conference. He might even prefer it that way.
During Bob Melvin’s introductory presser Wednesday morning at Oracle Park, Giants chairman Greg Johnson revealed that the organization has agreed in principle to keep Zaidi in charge of baseball operations for the next three years.
Both Zaidi and Melvin will be under contract through 2026. Zaidi’s agreement comes after two subpar years and prevents him from entering the offseason as a lame duck executive. If he completes the deal, Zaidi will have led the Giants for eight full seasons.
“What matters is us being where we want and expect to be,” Zaidi said. “I think the organization — whether it’s our players, staff, people in the front office — feeling like we have stability, that’s always a good thing. I know I’ve got to do better and be better. And again, I go back to our press conference after the season: it’s unacceptable to have our team produce the on-field results we’ve had the past couple years.”
Johnson had publicly expressed support for Zaidi multiple times, so a contract extension isn’t shocking. Zaidi had also shown little concern about getting a deal done. Still, executing a deal is noteworthy, particularly as a gesture of long-term franchise stability heading into free agency.
The Giants hired Zaidi in 2018, following two consecutive losing seasons. He was tasked with rebuilding a farm system and cleaning out prohibitive salaries while remaining competitive. He has accomplished those objectives with varying degrees of success.
It took until this year for San Francisco to graduate significant prospects to the Major Leagues, with Kyle Harrison, Patrick Bailey, Luis Matos, Keaton Winn and Casey Schmitt at least showing promise. How successful their careers turn out to be remains to be seen.
Under Zaidi, the Giants have sandwiched a franchise-record 107-win season between mediocrity. San Francisco finished 80-82 last year despite relatively aggressive free agent spending that followed their 81-81 2022 campaign. Before 2021, they finished 29-31 in the shortened season and 77-85 in Zaidi’s inaugural season.
“The last two years have been disappointing,” Zaidi said. “We want to be in the playoffs every year, and for us to not have been there the past couple years has been rough. But when I look at the broader arc, the last two seasons before I started in 2019, we were 50 games under .500. Our farm system, I think is much improved in that time…I know for fans, they don’t want to hear this and they shouldn’t want to hear this, but we’re in a much better financial position to be aggressive in free agency. Executing is a big part of that, but we were much more constrained when I first arrived in 18-19. There’s progress on all of those fronts. That doesn’t mean we’re happy or even satisfied by how these seasons have gone.”
Zaidi has excelled in finding valuable players on the margins. He has acquired players like Mike Yastrzemski, Thairo Estrada, LaMonte Wade Jr., and Blake Sabol with shrewd decisions. Short-term pitching contracts like Alex Cobb, Carlos Rodón and Kevin Gausman worked out well.
But under Zaidi, the Giants haven’t been able to secure a franchise-altering star. They couldn’t sway Bryce Harper to sign in 2019. They made a real push for Aaron Judge, who ultimately valued building his legacy with the Yankees. They could have signed Carlos Correa, but backed out after his failed physical.
This winter, the most sought-after free agents are set to be Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Jung Hoo Lee, Blake Snell and Cody Bellinger.
Zaidi’s first substantial move as president of baseball operations was hiring Gabe Kapler, whom he worked with in Los Angeles. Kapler and Zaidi typically operated in lockstep, with Kapler implementing many of the philosophies and strategies they agreed on.
Now, Zaidi has fired Kapler and replaced him with Melvin, another manager he has had a prior relationship with. If more difficult seasons in the ultra competitive National League West persist, Melvin could be the last manager he’s permitted to hire in San Francisco.
