7:50pm: Baer said in a conference call tonight that the Giants will search for a new head of baseball operations, meaning Sabean will not be in charge of such decisions moving forward, either (Twitter link via Pavlovic). Baer also stated that the team expects Bochy to return as the manager in 2019 (Twitter link via Schulman).
6:50pm: The Giants announced the move and added that Evans will be “reassigned” to a new role with responsibilities that have yet to be determined. Giants CEO Larry Baer offered the following statement:
“I want to thank Bobby for his tireless work on behalf of the Giants. He played an important role in our team’s success throughout his tenure, which includes three World Series championships, four NL pennants and eight playoff appearances. We look forward to new leadership to continue our historic record of success.”
Sabean will not simply be reprising his role atop the team’s operations hierarchy, it seems, as the press release indicates that he’ll work with Baer to find a replacement for Evans.
“I take great pride in the longstanding continuity of our baseball department,” Sabean said in his own statement. “I want to express my thanks to Bobby for all he has given to the Giants over the past 25 years and for his countless contributions.”
6:15pm: Bobby Evans has been removed from his post as the Giants’ general manager, reports Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle. It’s not clear if Evans will remain with the organization in another capacity or look for an opportunity in a new organization, though Schulman adds that he’s expected to be offered another role within the Giants. Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area writes that the move is likely to be the first of many in a major front-office shakeup, though Schulman notes that executive vice president Brian Sabean and manager Bruce Bochy are likely to be retained.
Evans has spent more than two decades with the Giants and played an instrumental role in helping to construct the three rosters that won the 2010, 2012 and 2014 World Series during San Francisco’s “even-year” dynasty. At the time, Evans was the assistant general manager to then-GM Sabean, but in 2015 the organization promoted Sabean to executive vice president and bumped Evans up the chain of command another peg.
Things haven’t gone well since, as San Francisco has been burned by big-money free agent signings (Jeff Samardzija, Johnny Cueto, Mark Melancon) while struggling through a pair of losing seasons. The Giants won only 64 games last season but loaded up on veteran additions in the offseason with an eye toward contending in 2018. Trade acquisitions Andrew McCutchen and Evan Longoria didn’t help the offense in the manner that Evans & Co. had hoped, however. This year’s club did manage to hang around the periphery of contention longer than the 2017 iteration of the Giants — despite myriad injury issues, it should be noted — but ultimately plummeted out of the division race in catastrophic fashion by losing 11 consecutive games.
While the past couple seasons for the Giants have been miserable, Evans should have no trouble finding another opportunity with a different organization if he decides to move on from the Giants. He’s among the game’s most respected executives and would bring a wealth of experience to a new club. It’s worth noting that there is at least one other GM opening that’ll need to be filled, as the Mets are searching for a new head of baseball operations following Sandy Alderson’s departure from the team earlier this summer.
Thank the lord!
Please tell me that the Giants have already offered Bobby Evans’ job to the Cardinals John Mozeliak!?!? That would make both the Giants and the Cardinals fans elated !!!!
Now Giants’ fans everywhere can rejoice. I didnt think this dude had any power though? Why do you guys hate him? President title is higher than GM.
Bobby Evans is what Ross Atkins is to the Blue Jays. I’m convinced when a President/GM tandem exists, GM will always take the fall.
We hate Evans because he has the worst press conferences. Looks clueless every time I hear him speak. Also Sabean has a great track record.
Pardon my ignorance, you Giants’ fans will always know more about the inner-workings of your franchise, than I ever will. Just curious why Evans was universally hated by Giants’ fans everywhere. Congrats for (finally) getting what you wanted. Thanks for the reply, baseball1600.
I didn’t understand it either because be was the gm for the 3 World Series
Evans was not the GM for the 3 World Series. Sabean was.
Evans wasn’t made gm till after 2014
Evans was assistant GM for those years. He contributed for sure but was not the GM or running the show
Haaaaaaalelujah, haaaaaaalelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujaaaaah
Not a good day for fading veterans that are past their primes.
Same could be said if this is truly the end of Scioscia.
Whoa
Good. If he stayed he would have handed out 100 M to DJ lemahiue and traded Panik for a bag of peanuts.
Things pretty much feel apart as soon as he took over.
It also coincided with the aftermath of three World Series appearances, which also guarantees 3 drafts of picking at the bottom, along with 5 other drafts near bottom when they made the playoffs without going to the WS. The Yankees now are reaping the benefits of not having made the playoffs but also having traded veterans to load their farm system. Baseball as a whole needs to ask why so many near 30 year olds get any contract for more than 2 years when the over 33 year old crowd ends up in the 60 day disabled list.
It might be time to cut bait on Panik.
Not the worst series of moves, well if each was less exaggerated.
Neither Evans nor the new GM would trade Panik. He’s going to be non-tendered.
…low hanging fruit
LOL Poor Bobby… Just like in politics, they love you at first and then they hate you. Well, politicians promise things they later don’t deliver. Guess Evans is like the worse politician right now…
I dont know that anyone ever really liked Evans.
This may be the time for a rebuild in the San Fransisco organization. Starting with the leadership, this move could definitely help in the ability to obtain young, impressive talent. Bruce Bochy probably should go as well, so a new manager can identify with the younger generation of players. It may take a few years, but the Giants will get back to being a dominant force in the West.
Bochy will stay on till the end of his contract, he will likely retire after next year when his contract is up if not earlier
Yes Bochy should go. All theses excuses, roster, injuries etc. Need new ideas. Kick him upstairs.
Giants need an overhaul, too many old players.
I was going to make a joke about how they should hire Colleti. Then it becomes real. That would be a terrible hire. More of the same
I wouldn’t advocate for the hiring of Colletti right now for the Giants, but he gets far more hate than he deserves. All he did is leave Golden Boy Andrew Freidman with a 2-time NL West championship team and one of the best farms in baseball. In his first draft he nabs Clayton Kershaw. Turner, Seager, Bellinger, Pederson, Puig – all drafted or acquired under Colletti.. I guess you can say Freidman hasn’t f*cked anything up (yet), but I’ll bet a lot of owners wish they had a GM to leave their franchise in the state that Colletti left the Dodgers.
I agree. Coletti wasn’t awful, and even if the Boston blockbuster wasn’t as successful as intended, A-Gon became a fan favorite, Hanley’s contract with Boston was technically worse than what was given up in a trade for him, and Crawford had a good year with LA.
The whole secret behind the Dodgers drafting success was Logan White. The farm was stocked when Colletti took over and then again when Colletti was fired. What Colletti did well was let guys do their jobs. He made some pretty good trades, but he also kind of infected the locker room by acquiring toxic attitudes. Which in a sense he had to do, but also there was a major reason they were available for nothing. The problem with Colletti was he never had a plan. He was stuck with McCourt, but he also completely backed himself in a corner with some terrible contracts. Especially in the financial spot he was in he missed on significant pitching contracts which he couldn’t do. I think Colletti gets way to much credit when in fact no one ever mentions White, especially when he was the architect behind the Jacksonville 5 and then basically built the system until he left. I also think Colletti also takes partially too much blame, bc well McCourt was trying to quell the significant bad press by trying to appease an unhappy fan base. All in all I think Colletti was an average GM who never was able to fix the pen or add a competent 4th SP. I leave this comment by saying thankfully White was really good at his job when he was given reasonable resources.
Flashes of Bill Smith.
This firing sponsored by AARP, unofficial sponsor of the Giants roster during the Bobby Evans era.
Ok. So now do they finally rebuild? Seems to me like they’ve waited just long enough to make that process much harder than it already is (kind of like my Angels) by pushing a couple of years too long.
Oh well, we’d all take 3 WS in 5 years.
Well you had the 3 wins in 5 years regardless. Had they gone for a rebuild in 2105 for example they would be competiting this year if not this year and next year
If Sabean is staying on I’m not sure what this move will accomplish. He, Bochy, and Baer all need to ride off into the sunset and enjoy retirement. The Giants need to get younger both on the field and in the front office.
Sabean is the big one that needs to go. Bochy is still a capable manager, it’s just that he hasn’t had any tools to have a winning team. Sabean/Evans value older talent too much because of players like Huff, Ross, Burrell, Pagan, Peavy, Scutaro. New GM will help get new sights on a younger team.
Agreed about Sabes, but Boch has to go, too!
Right on
If he has been as bad for as long as it appears why does the guy that gave him so many chances get to stick around? You want to clean up and change get rid of everyone involved in the losing
Question for Giants fans. Do they trade MadBum now?
That would be the smart move. Gotta see who they hire first and what direction ownership wants the franchise to take.
Hey giants just so you know I rebuilt your team and got them to 3 World Series (2 wins) as GM of the Giants in 10 seasons so far in OOTP 19
Who signed Armando Benitez? And Aaron Rowand? That guy should be fired.
You mean the guy that traded for Jeff Kent? Or the guy that oversaw the drafting of Lincecum, Cain, Bumgarner, and Posey? That guy? Wait, you must mean the one that traded for Javier Lopez and Marco Scutaro, and all the other deals and signings that directly resulted in 4 world series appearances, 3 championships and 8 overall playoff appearances.
I get it; pick a bad trade or signing here or there to point out why Sabean should be fired, but make no mistake, there has been a lot of winning under his tenure; the kind of which only a select few teams across all sports are able to enjoy.
i would like to point out, sabean never actually had a multi year free agent signing payoff, after the 2003 world series against the angels. with the exception of bengie molina, jeremy affeldt and javier lopez thats it. talking a span of over 10 years. where he made his living was with the trades he made and the 1 year deals or spring training invitees who turned into quality players. just about every player the giants resigned as well failed to payoff. freddy sanchez was a great trade but a horrible resigning. same can be said about hunter pence. edgar renteria was another bad resigning. matt cain, tim lincecum. free agent signings like mark derosa, armando benitez, aaron rowand, barry zito, even before the world series was loaded with misses like edgardo alfonso, ray durham, michael tucker, jose cruz jr etc etc. even players the giants tried to get all turned into busts. they offered pablo sandoval more money than the redsox, they just got lucky he turned them down. that same offseason they targeted chase headley and james shields. ill always give brian sabean a pass since the giants won 3 world series but he was far from a top 10 GM during his tenure
Right, because Sabean is the only GM that ever made a bad signing, or had it go south on him.
Only 2 real moves that giants fans still complain about under the ravens gm- zito and rowand , and zito kind of redeemed himself in 2012
And the AJ Pierzynski trade.
Nothing will change, keep Posey, Bum, Belt and Crawford, add a veteran FA or 2 and sell the cool aid drinking fan base on competing for a WS run. Evans and whoever replaces him are just Sabeans puppets
They could win the world series with those moves if everyone stays healthy,the signings work out, and everything breaks right, which is generally what happens when a team wins a world series.
Ruben Amaro III
I’ve heard giants fans say Bochy is also an issue, but then I’ve also heard other giants fans say it isn’t his fault. So which is it?
Bochy is a hall of fame manager. The roster stinks. Who thought trading for the old guys was a good idea?
Both, he is a hof manager and does know what he is doing but he has a terrible roster and is nearing the end of his career
Well 19 years is a long time
Which is the more attractive job, Mets or Giants?
Both are bad but if I’m looking for a job, working for Baer and Sabean sounds much better than working for the Wilpons.
Has to be the Giants due to Wilpon
The Mets probably will sign Evans for a major league minimum salary while the Giants pay off his contract. The Adrian Gonzalez of GM’s. ( I am being sarcastic, as I know there is no major league minimum for front office staff. But if there was………)
Giants need to hire Jon Daniels……says every ranger fan lol
The entire Giants organization is responsible for the current situation including Larry Baer. Lots of mistakes since 2014 by all. Evans was the GM but I think most if not all supported the moves. Moving Sabean aside is very interesting. It will be fascinating to see who arrives and whether they have the power to trade MadBum, an obvious move to be made.
Hopefully the new GM trades Bumgarner and doesn’t bring back Sandoval and Blanco.
Damn the best GM in the league got fired because he inherited a bunch of lazy players who start to give up once they start losing
You’re being sarcastic right?
Oh please …
Where do I send in my resume? #Scoutseyes
I like to be giants Gm
Guaranteed World Series in five years
Lol!
The Giants have reached the pinnacle of the sport and the dregs. It is part of what makes them so interesting to watch. Even when they succeeded it was dubbed “torture.”
This guy couldn’t run a minor league operations…. how he got this job is a head scratcher… he did manage to take a dynasty team and implode it in a matter of 3 seasons!
Anyone who knew anything about MLB knew this team should have been in full rebuild mode as of 2017. Now there’re moveable contract like Mad Bum are way less valuable and they won’t get much for him. I don’t even know if Posey is tradeable with his health issues and enormous salary. And obviously Cueto and Jeff S. suck. They’re farm system is garbage, and they’re in a world of trouble. This has 5 years minimum written all over it.
Lol!
Krueger on the morning show made a very solid case for it to be the Kim Ng from the mlb front office I’d have to say it seems like a very sf move
Shocked it didn’t happen sooner… acquiring McCutchen and Longoria after finishing with the second worst record was just a head scratcher for me. Had be begun a full scale rebuild and instead tried to deal his assets (ie Bumgarner, Crawford, Belt, Posey, Smardizja) over the offseason, their record probably wouldn’t have been to different and more or less expected.
Finally the $ 64 million pitchers won a game