The Giants announced today the hiring of Cubs Assistant GM Scott Harris to be their new GM under working under President of Baseball Operations, Farhan Zaidi who had been doing GM duties himself over the past year since his own hiring. Harris reportedly was a highly respected member of a highly respected management team in the Windy City working with Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer. Prior to being Assistant GM in Chicago, Harris held the title of Director of Baseball Operations. As Assistant GM, he reportedly oversaw the Cubs research and development department, the arbitration process and financial strategy and planning for baseball operations. Those seem like skills that should complement Farhan well in the Giants front office.
Harris' hiring comes as a bit of a surprise as it was long assumed by many analysts that A's Assistant GM Billy Owens was the prohibitive favorite for the job. While I admit I have pretty much no idea what makes a good GM, I was not crazy about things I read about Owens, particularly his reputation for falling in love with toolsy players and aggressively advocating for them to the rest of management. That made me wonder if he might have had influence on A's draft picks like Austin Beck and Kyler Murray. Of course, Owens may also have advocated for the likes of Khris Davis and Marcus Semien, which would be positives on his resume. I like that Farhan reached outside his A's/Dodgers comfort zone to hire Harris, who brings experience with a management group with an entirely different pedigree.
This hiring would seem to portend another announcement of a new field manager this week. Stay tuned.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I've read a couple of managerial candidates say that Zaidi has surrounded himself with smart people in the front office and Scott Harris seems like a great hire in that respect. I like that Cubs GM Jed Hoyer had great things to say about Harris and that former Giants GM and Indians great Al Rosen helped him get his 1st baseball internship with the Nationals. It sounds like Zaidi is building up a pretty good front office which makes me optimistic for the future. I want to see them make good sensible baseball moves this off-season, instead of big splashy moves which might have short term gains but hurt the team long term.
ReplyDelete"I want to see them make good sensible baseball moves this off-season, instead of big splashy moves which might have short term gains but hurt the team long term."
DeleteThis. Exactly.
Harris is now the youngest general manager in MLB, same age, +/-, as Posey, Crawford, & Belt, younger than Shark, Cueto, Longoria, & Watson.
ReplyDeleteAll apropos of nothing except he is really young and highly touted.
The new manager will likely be older than both his bosses although Josue Espada (born August 30, 1975) is just a year or so older than Zaidi.
Is now the time to get younger on the field?
Harris's first assignment should be to help find a way to unload Posey, Crawford, Belt, Longoria or at least half of them.
ReplyDeleteWishful wishing -- it won't happen.
DeleteThe Giants did an unthinkable job even unloading Melancon which most observers (including Harris) think was the coup of the trading deadline. In fairness Melancon mostly pitched very well for the Braves.
Melancon had something to give albeit not a lot to Giants fans who expected so much more. Also, there is just one year left on Melancon's contract and he might earn half of it WAR-wise.
Not so with the Big 4 of the Giants, they all have more than one year and some have buyouts on top of that and it is unlikely that any will ever get to within 1 WAR point of their contracts.
The Giants will see the Four in Giants uniforms for the duration of their contracts unless they fully buy them out or cut them which is the same thing.
As doc has pointed out, the money does not stand in the Giants way if they want to spend to the limit for a .500 +/- team although they do block playing time especially the Brandons.
Would either block a trade if the alternative was to be just cut? Wouldn't it better to be traded for a couple middling prospects than to be ignominiously released?
The 4's money is sunk cost. there's no magic pill.
Have a good feeling about this hire. In addition to the intelligence, scouting and research acumen, what this organization needs is Leadership. Same as the 49ers, what John Lynch brought in was not an overwhelming capacity for the details of scouting, etc.; He brought a sense of direction and leadership to the organization. And an ability to work with the skilled staff around him, and to bring in guys who WANTED to work with him.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me like Zaidi understands what it takes to build an org from the ground up, and what makes a company great over time. I think this puts the Giants in a great direction, and while it's going to take a while (it took 3-4 years for the Giants from 2006-2010, and 3 years for the Niners from 2016-2019), with the right components in place and everyone pulling in the same direction, it's just a matter of when.
Love it. Go Giants.
Kapler?
DeleteThe Giants better come out like gangbusters or the Candlestick crowd will be at Oracle!
OK, no one comes out to see the manager, but they do come out to see their team compete. The Phillies fell from expectations with Kapler -- how far can the giants fall?
Most Pertinent Question:
ReplyDeleteHow does Bumgarner feel about the hire?
Is it a leg up on Brian Snitker, Dave Martinez, Joe Girardi, Mike Shildt, David Ross, A.J. Hinch, Aaron Boone, or ?