After 18 seasons, Giants groundskeeper is leaving for another Bay Area team

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For 18 seasons, Giants head groundskeeper Greg Elliott and his staff had the challenging chore of keeping the Oracle Park field in pristine condition to improve the ballpark experience for fans but, mostly, benefit players.

“We provide the canvas for the artist,” Elliott said.

A career with the Giants that began in 2008 and included three World Series runs is coming to a close after the final 2025 homestand, as Elliott is moving on to become head groundskeeper for the San Jose Earthquakes.

Elliott, 51, oversaw not only field preparation and maintenance for every game of every homestand but the transitions from the many non-baseball events hosted when the Giants were on the road — all having an effect on the grass and dirt. He also dealt with the tricky elements of San Francisco’s unique weather patterns.

“I’m grateful for the opportunity to work here and the trust the team put in me over the years,” Elliott said. “You always want to leave your mark, and you always want to leave a place better than when you started.”

With his 2008 arrival, Elliott, who was hired by Jorge Costa, the longtime ballpark operations chief, was on the ground floor of the championship run. He has three World Series rings and rode in three parades. He later dived into the analytics age, especially after Farhan Zaidi showed up in 2019, with new methods of field testing and moisture readings for playability and safety. And this year, it was a full-circle experience, with Buster Posey returning to prominence as president of baseball operations.

Elliott played a role in various Oracle Park reconfigurations, especially when the outfield walls were moved in and the bullpens were removed from beyond the foul lines.

“That move made it a safer playing surface for the athletes,” Elliott said. “It also made it a more enjoyable experience for players. With the bullpens on the field, we had everyone in the dugout. So now the pitchers are separate and have their space to focus.”

Few players were involved in the field process as much as four-time Gold Glove shortstop Brandon Crawford, who often communicated with Elliott about his likes and dislikes regarding the infield. The grounds crew generally caters to players’ preferences.

“We always tried to hit the individual position spots for how they wanted it,” Elliott said. “For example, the third basemen. Pablo Sandoval liked it a little more wet, a little more slippery, because he liked to dive and get dirty. For Evan Longoria, it was more about making it wet and firm.

“Crawford was not too different, but we would have conversations if it wasn’t feeling right or wasn’t playing the same, what we would do, and then we’d see each other over a course of three days and crack the issue, whether it’s moisture management, whether the amount of conditioners were down.”

The current third baseman, five-time Gold Glover Matt Chapman, recently expressed to Elliott his disappointment in the hardness of the infield around the bag, a reason his hands have been scraped and bloodied so often this season.

“The field was really hard,” Chapman said Tuesday. “Obviously, I was getting cut up and scraped up all year, so it was unfortunate. But I know they’re putting their best effort out there now to get it fixed up for this last homestand, and hopefully it won’t be an issue moving forward.”

It’s a challenge for the grounds crew to transform the field back to a playing surface after non-baseball events are staged on the field. There were eight this season; for most of the Giants’ trips, events were taking place on the Oracle Park field. With concerts, the speaker stand often is placed right around the third base area.

More recently, an Aug. 23 match involving Bay FC prompted the grounds crew to turn the baseball field into a soccer pitch and then back to a baseball field. Last homestand, after hearing from Chapman, Elliott made an effort to soften the dirt around third base and other spots, placing 25 bags of conditioners (50 pounds each) across five infield locations.

“My biggest job is to prevent players from noticing anything different when they are gone and come back,” Elliott said. “Recently, we haven’t done as good a job as we would have liked.”

Elliott said his move to the Earthquakes isn’t related to any particular player feedback; it’s been in the works for two months. With the Earthquakes, he’ll have more time, especially nights, to be with his family. He has four children, the youngest 8 years old.

Elliot has two full-time assistants, Johnny Franco and Kevin Wallace, who have been on the crew nearly as long as Elliott, along with 60 part-timers.

Alfonso Felder, who oversees ballpark operations, called Elliott “an amazing part of the organization. This is an exciting opportunity, so we’re happy for him and incredibly appreciative with everything he’s brought to the Giants the last 18 years.”

As for a replacement, Felder said nothing would materialize until after the season and added, “We’ve got a lot of confidence with the team we’ve got.”