Giants’ new boss first displayed promise with A’s
CARLSBAD, San Diego County — A’s general manager David Forst recalled the day he and Billy Beane interviewed a young Farhan Zaidi for an entry-level position in Oakland.
Zaidi, who was named the Giants’ president of baseball operations Tuesday night, had a bachelor’s degree in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was getting a doctorate in behavioral economics from Cal. A typical numbers guy, right? “We originally hired Farhan because of his personality,” Forst said, “not because of his Ph.D or his analytics chops or whatever.” Wait, what? “We sat on the couch in Billy’s office and just enjoyed the hour conversation we had with him,” Forst said. “Yeah, it helped that he went to MIT and was trying to get a Ph.D. in economics, but he was going to fit in with us.
“When he left the room after that initial interview, Billy and I were like, ‘This guy is great. He’s the guy.’ ”
Fourteen years later, Giants CEO Larry Baer feels the same way.
In a momentous move for an organization that has been consistent with its personnel and philosophies, the Giants suddenly became more analytics-driven when hiring Zaidi as their front-office boss.
Zaidi, a 41-year-old who rose to prominence with the A’s and helped build two Dodgers teams that appeared in the World Series, inherits a Giants team that played poorly the past 2½ seasons and has an old roster, many excessive contracts and a depleted farm system.
Zaidi was the Dodgers’ GM the past four years after leaving the A’s, with whom he worked his way up to assistant GM, in November 2014. The Dodgers didn’t stand in his way to get a promotion in another organization. Even with a longtime rival. “That’s how we operate,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said at the GM meetings at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa. “I feel like we’ve lost a lot of employees in the last three years, but a lot of that is a result of the success we’ve had. I hope it continues to happen, in a weird way.”
The Giants, who fired GM Bobby Evans on Sept. 24, had been searching for someone to not only replace Evans but assume the role held by Brian Sabean, the baseball department’s top decision-maker since the late ’90s. Sabean was preferring to step back into an advisory role and focus on scouting, his roots.
Baer had said he wanted someone with a background in both analytics and scouting, and though Zaidi has a reputation for relying heavily on statistical data, Forst said, “This is the last guy you’d pigeonhole as just an analytics person.”
Zaidi’s first gig with the A’s, coming before the 2005 season, was as a baseball-operations assistant, primarily focusing on advanced metrics. Over time, he became more well-rounded to the extent, Forst said, he “fit in well with scouts and always wanted to be out at games with guys.”
Hours before the Giants announced Zaidi was their man, Friedman reflected on their time together and called him “really bright, really curious. I felt our skill sets would complement each other really well. It’s played out as well as I possibly could imagine.”
It’s believed Zaidi will hire a GM, and it wouldn’t be surprising if his former colleague, Billy Owens, Oakland’s director of player personnel and assistant GM, is a candidate.
Owens has been in the A’s organization for 20 years and scouted at the major-league, amateur and international levels and also is well-versed in analytics. He remains tight with Zaidi.
“I absolutely think Bill O’s name should be considered anytime there’s a GM opening,” Forst said.
Forst himself was a candidate for the Giants’ top job and called the opportunity “flattering” but declined an interview and said of his role with the A’s, who last month gave him a four-year extension, “This is where I wanted to be.”
Forst said the Giants’ gig is considered one of the best in baseball, considering the location, market and resources.
“Absolutely. It’s one of the prime organizations in the game,” he said. “I’m totally comfortable saying that, sitting across the water looking at the stadium, that organization. Aside from the three titles in this decade, it’s San Francisco.
“It’s a beautiful stadium they can sell out when they’re good. Larry’s done an incredible job to put them in position to be a jewel in the industry.”