Even when Farhan Zaidi was at his brief zenith with the Giants, even when the loudest and angriest fans weren’t actually that loud or angry, there was stress inside Giants HQ. And there were worries about how this all would turn out.
Even when Zaidi should’ve had almost no doubters inside this franchise, there were quiet misgivings and mumbled questions. I walked right into one of those murmurings a few months after the Giants’ remarkable 107-win performance in 2021, and I’ll never forget it.
At the time, a team official and I were talking about Zaidi having the unique experience of working for both the dirt-cheap, fan-repelling A’s and the big-spending, extremely valuable Dodgers.
“But he’s more Dodgers than A’s, right?” the official blurted out. It wasn’t for effect. The executive really wanted to hear — needed to hear — reinforcement that Zaidi could operate a big-time team with big-time thinking. And neither of us knew the answer for sure.
Even after that 2021 run, there were traditional Giants employees who wondered if Zaidi was too happy working the mediocre margins with analytical formulas, too committed to socially awkward manager Gabe Kapler, and too disinterested in assembling a dynamic roster that could put fear into opponents and sell out Oracle Park.
And if there were concerns back then, you can imagine the mood of the Giants’ ownership group this season, the third straight time the team fell short of the playoffs. You could feel the questions in the air this season. Zaidi is smart, no doubt. But is he too intent on proving just how smart he is?
So yes, this has been brewing for a while. Zaidi’s seat started getting hot the day Buster Posey, a minority owner, moved his family back to the Bay Area before this season. The seat got hotter as Zaidi’s biggest offseason moves failed to lead to victories. And it was surface-of-the-sun levels of hot over the last few weeks, as public speculation mounted and the ownership group stayed silent.
Well, silent no more: The Giants on Monday announced Zaidi’s firing and the installation of Posey as president of baseball operations. The first part was wholly unsurprising, but the second was a bit of a shock — not that Posey would be part of this process, but that he would take on such an official role right now.
Ownership’s logic on tapping Posey: Why try to hide it? Whether he got the title or not, he’s been Johnson’s top advisor and will continue to be. He’s taken the temperature of the clubhouse, and, in the ultimate hint, recently initiated the final talks to get Matt Chapman signed to a long-term deal. He’s the guy running this franchise now.
Front-office question marks
Posey, Johnson, and Bob Melvin are scheduled to speak to the media Tuesday, so we’ll get more answers then. Melvin’s presence is an obvious sign that he’ll stay on as manager. And maybe it’s a hint that some of the weird roster yo-yoing this season was an indication that he and Zaidi, who came in as close associates, weren’t always on the same page.
The Giants obviously need a nuts-and-bolts baseball executive to assist Posey, who has no experience in management. (There was no announcement about GM Pete Putila. He’s likely a candidate to remain in the job, but I’d guess he’s very unlikely to retain that position.) And there’ll be no mystery in that search now. The lieutenant will probably get the general manager’s title but will report to Posey.
It’s all Posey. It’s all streamlined. Nobody’s guessing. And Posey not only understands the Giants’ culture, he helped create most of it.
I think that’ll be the main message Tuesday and for the rest of this era. Though I shake my head at overt PR campaigns almost as much as Zaidi does, it’s necessary at this moment. The Giants need to earn back the faith of their huge fan base. They need to connect on all intellectual and emotional levels. And they’re doing it with somebody who will not and cannot be identified with any other team.
Zaidi was an outsider who was never beloved by Giants fans and never seemed to care about it. There was always something respectable about his muted disdain for the hoarier parts of Giants fandom. I appreciated that, even in this tense season, Zaidi pushed back against some of this baseball romanticism. But if you’re going to hold yourself that separate from the traditions and folklore that have made this such a rich franchise, you’d better win a lot of games to keep fans lining up to buy tickets. If you don’t, there will be questions and eventually, a firing.
Can Posey get this team back into the playoffs? Nobody knows. But I don’t think he’ll tear up the entire front office and roster. I think he’ll try to build from it — for instance, I doubt he’ll junk the entire analytical operation. I suspect he’ll hire a young GM with experience in metrics and other facets of evaluation. I know Posey respects Logan Webb, Patrick Bailey, and several other players on this roster.
But there will be changes. I would guess that the long line of DH–platoon players that Zaidi always loved to acquire won’t be continued. Wilmer Flores was a great signing, but the production was going to last only so long. LaMonte Wade Jr. was a good acquisition, but he’s likely topped out. Let other teams build their lineups with these kinds of guys. The Giants need stars. Now they’ve got one at the top of the organizational chart.
Buster’s legacy
Posey, of course, walks into this job with a towering Giants legacy — three World Series rings and a Hall of Fame destiny. It’s a bit of a joke with me and a few Giants beat writers that Posey was always the guy I wanted to talk to during the dynasty, even though he rarely was colorful and didn’t hide his contempt for questions that wasted his time.
I still talked to Posey as much as possible — more than I talked to Tim Lincecum, Brandon Crawford, Madison Bumgarner, or anybody else — because what he said as a player always mattered. What he believed mattered. He wasn’t dumb enough to presume he knew everything and wasn’t silly enough to think he could talk his way out of anything.
“I think he’s just a very thoughtful person and a very candid and open person,” Johnson said about Posey on my podcast in May. “And that’s what I really appreciate. The more I’ve been around him, the more impressed I’ve been with him, that he adds so much value to our team. He cares so much about the Giants.”
Posey will have to hire a great staff. I’m sure he knows that. He’ll have to build a foundation of winning talent — something that Zaidi, through all his draft picks, roster machinations, and occasional free-agent splurges, could never do.
And Posey will have to land a superstar, somehow. The Giants haven’t had a truly great player since Posey himself retired after the 2021 season. Now he’s back and in charge of finding the next one or two or three. There’s no guarantee that Posey will make this all work. But nobody will have to wonder if he understands why this is important to the Giants or if he really gets what makes the Giants matter to their fans.