When it comes to stability and continuity in the manager’s office, few franchises can match the San Francisco Giants over the past four decades. Now the Giants are turning to the three-time GM to get them back on track.
After a quick interview, they are ready to announce the appointment of Bob Melvin, sources familiar with the matter said The athlete On condition of anonymity.
The Giants moved quickly once the Padres gave permission to talk to Melvin, who had one year left on his contract to manage in San Diego but was known to be feuding with Padres GM AJ Preller. Melvin met Monday with several senior Giants officials across baseball operations and ownership, including Executive Council member Buster Posey. Clearly nothing has emerged from those conversations to dissuade San Francisco officials from saying that Melvin, a Bay Area native who turns 62 on Saturday, is the right choice at the moment.
Melvin will enter his 21st season as a major league manager – a successful second career that began when the Seattle Mariners hired him to replace Lou Piniella before the 2003 season. He won the National League Manager of the Year award during his five seasons with the Arizona Diamondbacks and added two American League Manager of the Year awards while at the helm. The Oakland A’s made it to the postseason in six of his 11 seasons there from 2011-2021.
With the A’s in breakout mode, Oakland officials allowed Melvin to escape the final year of his contract and accept the job in San Diego, where the free-spending Padres were ramping up their efforts to make a World Series run. The Padres entered the postseason with an 89-73 record in 2022 and overcame the suspension of Fernando Tatis Jr. to upset the Los Angeles Dodgers and reach the NLCS. But more turmoil at all levels of the organization came to the Padres last season. They had to win 14 of their final 16 games to finish with a winning record (82-80) and missed the postseason despite a $250 million payroll and a +104 home run differential that was superior to every NL team except the Dodgers and Atlanta Braves.
The Giants’ top decision-makers clearly didn’t view the disappointment in San Diego as a reflection on Melvin. The Giants are experiencing their own instability, as president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi enters the final guaranteed year of his contract. The Giants have a club culture that needs to be rebuilt after Gabe Kapler was fired on the final weekend of the season, citing the need for new leadership and more communication within the stale club.
Kapler was Zaidi’s hand-picked pick and accomplished four seasons, leading the organization through the challenge of a pandemic-shortened 2020 season played under strict health and safety protocols, then winning NL Manager of the Year honors after guiding the Giants to a franchise-record 107 regular-season wins and a surprise NL West title in 2021. Of the unorthodox 13-person coaching staff Kapler assembled, most of whom lacked big-league experience, several have turned into valuable contributors and are expected to be retained under Melvin. .
But something was missing as the Giants lost 22 of their last 28 games on the road, compiled an 8-16 record under Kapler in September, and finished 79-83 in a season in which their playoff odds were better than 75 percent through Aug. 3. As outfielder Mike Yastrzemski described on the final weekend of the season, “I think a ‘stand up for yourself’ kind of vibe has somehow found its place. I don’t know where that came from, but it kind of took over everybody’s sense that they could Doing their own thing, making it feel like there wasn’t a complete team effort or feeling of loneliness.
The Giants are seeking more continuity in the lineup, rotation and dugout, having enjoyed a clear lineage over nearly four decades from Roger Craig to Dusty Baker to Felipe Alou to Bruce Bochy — another manager the Padres allowed the Giants to hire away before the 2007 season despite still having a year left. On his contract in San Diego.
Melvin is not expected to last 13 seasons as Bochy did. It is not clear whether he will arrive on a contract longer than one year, or how long he intends to continue coaching. Perhaps he will view his tenure in San Francisco, however long, as a suitable place to complete a four-decade career in uniform. Melvin grew up on the Peninsula and graduated from Menlo-Atherton High School before playing at Canada College in Redwood City and Cal Berkeley. He was 24 years old in 1985 when the Detroit Tigers traded him to San Francisco as part of a six-player trade and he spent the next three seasons playing under Craig as the Giants’ part-time catcher.
“I think Roger Craig was the first guy I played with who really connected with him,” Melvin told John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle in 2019. He would tell you what time to play. He was like, ‘Look, two days from now you’re playing against this pitcher, and here’s why.’ That resonated with me, and I feel like I do that with my players the best I can.
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(Photo: Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)
