Long-time Giants skipper Bruce Bochy left little doubt that he wants to return next season in a chat with John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle. His current contract expires after the 2019 campaign.
Certainly, the results haven’t been there over the past two seasons — and, especially, in recent weeks. Even if the postseason long seemed a difficult objective after a disastrous 2017 effort, the club hung in the hunt for most of the current season. But the Giants are now closer to last place in the NL West than they are to third, reflecting a brutal stretch of play.
The writing was already on the wall when CEO Larry Baer expressed clear support for the team’s leadership. But it could be that the sudden downturn, along with other unhappy developments such as season-ending surgery for Buster Posey, has upped the uncertainty.
As Shea explains, it’s unclear at the moment whether the club remains committed to Bochy. Similarly, the club’s long-tenured front office leadership has yet to receive any public assurances. Both Brian Sabean and Bobby Evans will enter the offseason with a single season left on their deals, too.
For his part, though, Bochy says he’s still fully on board. “I still enjoy this as much as I did my first year,” he tells Shea. Of course, he also made clear that his drive is based upon the fact that he “want[s] to get back to the postseason.” Just how much of a priority contention will be in 2019 isn’t yet clear.
All things considered, the Giants face an immense amount of uncertainty. The options are limited with about $125MM in salary commitments already written in stone for each of the next two seasons — much of which is tied up in underperforming players.
Whether the uncertainty will lead to wholesale change, though, remains to be seen. Certainly, it’d be hard to lay the struggles of the past two seasons at Bochy’s feet. The roster wasn’t quite up to snuff on paper, even before injuries and declines intervened. Whether or not Bochy shares a significant portion of the blame, though, he could be caught up in a broader shift — if, that is, the club’s ownership decides it’s time to blow up a leadership combination that has brought so much success.
Giants fans, in particular, will certainly want to give Shea’s piece a full read, as he covers a lot of ground on the broader subject of the organization’s situation.
Bring Bochy back. He is still one of the best managers in baseball
Every other year
If Mike Scioscia can leave on his own terms almost two decades after winning a single World Series and having far too many disappointing seasons, Bruce Bochy definitely deserves to go out on his terms after winning his third WS in five years only 4 years ago. He has not become a worse manager and the game has not passed him by, his players just got old and/or hurt.
In my opinion, he deserves a lifetime leash. Most Giants fans’ should be set for a lifetime, watching 3 Rings out of 5 years. 108 year leash, at the very minimum.
Let’s forget about the 60+ years before I guess.
That’s all you dodgers fans have huh. You guys gonna have your annual “we made the playoffs”parade this year?
Hahahaha yes, that’s all they have. It’s quite sad actually. Let’s pity them
That’s what good teams do. Win their division.
No, good teams win the World Series.
Send him away now.
Let’s bring back the old days – managers like Casey Stengel lasting a lifetime and players staying with a team their whole career – The Giants storied franchise with Bochy and Posey staying on the team could give us old timers a memory for our childhood from a bygone era:
For the rest of you Giant fans – go get Harper :)
I miss the days kid Gwynn and Ripken
..
Eliminate free agency. Like the MLBPA will agree to that
They wouldn’t agree to eliminating free agency without getting something in return. But they would definitely agree to this: eliminate the draft, and replace it with the system international players are signed through (where they get to choose their team, but teams are capped in how much they can spend on bonuses).
That, just by itself, would make it far more likely that players end up signed by their local and/or favorite team, which in turn will make it more likely that they stick around.
And, once you have that in place, and players get to choose their team to start with, there’s another thing worth noting: the vast majority of players aren’t on lucrative free agent contracts.
So, if the owners were to offer to start arbitration earlier, and make arbitration salaries higher, in exchange for delaying free agency, the vast majority of players would benefit from that. Only a small minority would lose out (those 20-25 superstars who get the big contracts)
So it stands to reason that the union, which elects its’ leaders democratically, would be in favor of such a move. The faction that is against that is actually some of the stingy owners, who claim they couldn’t afford higher arbitration costs. Not the PA.
Stansfield123
What are you babbling about? In particular explain how owners can to make “arbitration salaries higher” how in hell can they that?
Its called ARBITRATION ding dong. So how fan owners make arbitrators pay more?
Also show some support your lame argument that owners say they cannot afford higher arbitration costs
Nowhere did anyone suggest eliminating free agency. Reading comprehension is your friend.
FWIW, Stengel managed four teams, and spent 11 years in his longest stint, with the Yankees from ’49 to ’60. Granted, he won about 172 championships in that span, so it seemed like he spent a century with the Yankees….
Not a Gants fan at all but Bochy has earned a leave on his own terms type of deal. The front office has done a hatchet job on this team. This coming from a Royals fan.
Two things are pretty obvious, even for those of us who don’t watch the Giants a lot:
(1) They have problems, mostly do what the FO has done
(2) None of them had anything to do with Bochy.
He strikes me at being one of those VERY few who grabs an extra 3-5 wins a year with the way he does things…and those guys are rare; most managers get what the roster gives them. And can’t get any more.
Agree 100%, and I’m a Pirates fan with no stake in this discussion. Great post.
Dodgers fan in SF. Even I think Bochy deserves at the very least 2019.
Giants need a complete overhaul, from top to bottom. get ready for 100 losses next year…
He’s one of the greatest managers the game has ever seen. He deserves to go out on his own terms
They need to begin to have confidence in their own ability to draft and develop talent into major leagers.. They need to retain them and let them play as opposed to continuing to trade them away for soon to be past their prime players and saddling the organization with under performing, over paid players. Put a tight reign on the free agent checkbook = fewer Johnny Cueto, Mark Melancon, Jeff Samardzija, signings and MORE Derek Holland, Alen Hanson and Dereck Rodriguez types,
When ownership and the front office fail, fire the manager. That’s how it has always worked in baseball. They sure aren’t going to fire themselves.
Bochy isn’t the issue.
Amen.
Absolutely not. Get rid of Evans for sure. Now there is someone I’m glad to hear only had a year left
Bochy isn’t the issue. Give him a new FO and a good team of real players again and see what happens
the giants front office has left the team as a mess, it will be an ugly and long rebuild. with that being said, giants officials might be wondering what the point is in having one of the highest paid managers in baseball to manage a bad team? they could let him move on to a different club that is closer to winning, or do the super rare manager trade and get something back for him. bochy is far from the problem in SF.
Bochy didn’t forget how to Manage? The bottom line is:FA hitters don’t want to come to AT&T, they have to be Homegrown or Traded for and to boot your got Saber Metrics Crap involved,Veterans don’t like change they were successful before then all of a sudden you present Launch Angle? Please Scrap it! and go back to making contact and make good outs,a timely Stolen Base-and a timely Homerun or Two that makes the Chemistry of plying for the next guy by not hitting into the Shift constantly . The Pitching Blue Print is there with a tweek or two.There are other changes that should be made but that Philosophy seems to have been the biggest change to me.
Was this supposed to makes sense, or were you just exercising your shift key?
I’d bring him back unless we can get a guy like Kevin Mitchell or Bip Roberts.
Sorry didn’t read all the commments
But Giants fan here and Bochy is not the issue.
I do thinks he loves his veterans a bit much, but Bochy didn’t sign and trade for the likes of Cueto, Shark, Malancon , Longoria , Belt, And Crawford ( Giants overpay their own and took some risks on pitchers and older players)
The simple issue is they wrote some bad contracts and haven’t spent money on the farm system. – that’s not on Bochy
We don’t really know what goes on – but it sure seems like he keeps an even keel in the locker room , to the youngsters he is a legend , and Vets respect him – he uses the talent he has and no one “ out manages” him in a game
If Bochy becomes the scapegoat for Baer , Sabean, and Evans – I call BS on Giants baseball
Will BB EVER figure out what it takes to beat San Diego?
Not a Giants fan but they should bring him back for a couple more seasons….after all he is the primary reason they won each WS….without him they win 0 WS….he is or was the Bill Belichek of baseball….