The Giants are remaking their front office, looking to hire a new general manager and maybe other executives as well. Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle has reported some of the latest details today. Notably, the club has asked the Athletics to speak to assistant general manager Billy Owens. Other candidates include Jeremy Shelley, who is already with the Giants as an assistant GM, and old friend Bobby Evans. However, Slusser adds that the club is planning to do a thorough search that could take weeks, which perhaps suggests the list of possible candidates will include many people not specifically named here.
For most baseball clubs these days, the general manager is the second spot on the decision-making pyramid, with the title of president of baseball operations usually going to the top dog. That will be the case for the Giants but perhaps this GM job will be a bit more important than others around the league.
Buster Posey was just given the POBO title and will be the club’s chief decision maker, but he has come to the gig via an unusual path. Many presidents get their jobs after years working for clubs either in scouting or analytics, climbing the ladder over time. Posey was on the field as a player just three years ago, retiring after 2021. He later joined the club’s ownership group, purchasing a minority share in September of 2022, getting a seat on the board of directors.
It seems Posey was fairly active in that role. Back in January, Taylor Wirth of NBC Sports Bay Area relayed that Posey and righty Logan Webb were working together to recruit free agents to San Francisco. Last month, it was reported by Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic that Posey has taken a leading role in the Matt Chapman extension negotiations even though Farhan Zaidi was still the POBO at that time. Posey was given Zaidi’s job shortly thereafter and the club decided to reassign GM Pete Putila and give that title to someone else to assist Posey.
Despite Posey clearly taking a hands-on role as a partial owner, his unusual track record and quick ascent could mean that he might need a GM who has lots of experience with the day-to-day nitty-gritty of running a baseball team.
Evans certainly qualifies, as fans of the Giants are well aware. He was hired by the Giants in 1994 as a minor league administrative assistant and worked his way through various other titles, including director of minor league operations in 1998, director of player personnel in 2005, vice president of baseball operations in 2009 and general manager in 2015. The Giants had plenty of success in that time, winning titles in the even-numbered years from 2010 to 2014, but their results declined in the seasons to come and Evans was fired after the 2018 campaign as the club pivoted to Zaidi.
Since that time, Evans has emerged as a candidate for other front office jobs but hasn’t landed a gig. He interviewed for the Astros in 2020, though that GM job ultimately went to James Click. Evans also interviewed for the Angels’ GM position prior to 2021, a position that went to Perry Minasian. When the Astros surprisingly moved on from Click after winning the 2022 World Series, Evans got another interview but Dana Brown ultimately secured that spot. Per Slusser, Evans has been working for various nonprofit organizations since his time with the Giants.
Though he has been in the wilderness for a few years, perhaps Posey will bring him back to San Francisco. It’s unclear if he’s being considered for the GM spot or some other advisory role. Either way, he and Posey are presumably plenty familiar with each other from their overlapping time with the club, as Posey was drafted in 2008 and made it to the big leagues for the Giants by 2009. The fact that Evans is now a candidate to work with Posey again, though in different circumstances, suggests the two had a good relationship during that previous era.
It may be a similar situation with Shelley. Per his bio at MLB.com, he has been working with the Giants for over 30 years now, so his time with the club also overlaps with Posey’s time as a player but also as partial owner/board member. Shelley started as a baseball operations intern in 1994 before moving up to administrative assistant in the baseball operations department in 1996. He then became director of baseball operations in 2006, senior director of baseball operations/pro scouting in 2009 and vice president, pro scouting and player evaluation in 2013.
It would be a different situation with Owens, who has been working for the A’s for over 20 years now. Per an MLB.com profile by Bill Ladson published last year, Owens started with the A’s in 1999 as a minor league hitting instructor. He later became a scout and then a scouting coordinator. By 2010, he was named director of player personnel and he got the assistant GM title five years after.
This isn’t the first time his name has emerged for a job away from the A’s. Like Evans, he was a candidate for the Angels’ GM gig that went to Minasian in late 2020. That same offseason, he was considered for a GM role by the Mets, but Jared Porter got that spot at that time.
mooksman
This is so incredibly depressing. Bobby Evans? My god.
ZackMorris
HAVE MERCY!
spliffTONE
@UncleJesse: Super tired shtick, guy
thickiedon
Spliff, I’m enjoying the pseudo celeb comments. MUCH better than the lame pun threads
ZackMorris
spliffTONE
Mute me then instead of crying about it. You sound like a Dodgers fan.
spliffTONE
@thickiedon: So basically you’re easily amused
spliffTONE
@UncleJesse: No thanks. Have fun with your little shtick (which I assume you’re leaning on because you don’t really have anything of substance to add)
ZackMorris
spliffTONE the curmudgeon
Heaven forbid people have fun on here while talking baseball. I’m always happy to be lectured by an intellectual like yourself.
Go Giants and GFY 🙂
ZackMorris
I clearly hurt yours as shown by all your whining on this article. You’re fragile, change that profile pic, phony Giants fan. I’m sure you were squealing like a school girl watching your Dodgers beat SD.
Cuck.
spliffTONE
@UncleJesse: Lol way too easy to get under your skin. I guess that cheeseball shtick of yours really means a lot to you
Best of luck on a speedy recovery, lil’ guy
ZackMorris
I own you, beta male 🙂
5TUNT1N
Did Bobby get a fair shot? How many season did he get I honestly can’t remember? I wasn’t impressed with the team or roster construction at the time. My dumb a should’ve googled it. It was 3 maybe they just need someone to make rule 5 moves etc before hiring a more permanent GM. One thing I can say if Bobby was the GM they likely wouldn’t have had as much bad publicity, for example Thairo, Crawford, Renel Brooks, JD Davis.
layventsky
To be fair, he worked under Brian Sabean as PBO, so who knows how much decision-making power he actually had.
disadvantage
@5TUNT1N
I always thought Bobby was dealt an unfair hand. The team was coming off of three championships, so expectations were sky high. But the core was aging, and ownership refused to go into a full rebuild, so it was sort of no man’s land of remaining relevant, while balancing dead-weight contracts and aging veterans. Bringing in two franchise icons in Longo and Cutch was certainly a clever solution, but not very effective in winning games.
mlb fan
“Was dealt an unfair hand”…Excellent analysis. I couldn’t agree more.
5TUNT1N
He did trade Luis Castillo for Casey Mcgehee if I recall. But people say farhan got dealt that same unfair hand with the aging contracts. Bobby was in a similar boat and didn’t hand them all out if I recall correctly.
Pete'sView
5TUNT1N
No, I don’t think we want Evans back. Assuming he had much to do with trades and development (along with Sabean), the decisions were pretty crappy and left the Giants in a huge hole. Too bad Farhan couldn’t pull off more success in 6 years.
mooksman
Who cares if he was given a fair shot? He was Sabean’s guy, and they ran the org for 17 years. This organization is going backwards. How do you know if those decisions would have been made or not? Would it be good to have kept JD Davis this year? Or a broken Thairo Estrada? You wish this org had spent more time glazing Thairo Estrada when he was hurt and/or abysmal all year? This org should keep bad players so Andrew Baggarly and Susan Slusser don’t write petty little articles about it? And what does the baseball ops department even have to do with Renel Brooks? That was more ownership than baseball ops I would think, ownership that included the current POBO. I swear some Giants fans care about the weirdest stuff.
This news about Bobby Evans is exactly the kind of garbage I was afraid of when they made this announcement, but it makes a lot of sense because really, Buster Posey doesn’t know anyone in the baseball operations world. These three guys mentioned in this article are probably the only three guys whose business cards he has. It is such a strange move to pick a POBO who has to begin at such a deficit; a true unforced error.
I lived through a lot of Giants baseball and there was nothing sweeter than winning those rings but part of why it was so sweet was that the Giants were such an antiquated and foolish organization for so long that only clung to relevancy on the back of Barry Bonds, and it was completely unexpected that they would suddenly win. And fun, sure! But does anyone in their right mind think the process that led to those rings is in ANY WAY repeatable? For instance, when Barry Zito beat Verlander in Game 1 of the 2012 WS, we all had a laugh and couldn’t believe it. But if you play that game 100 times, how many times is that the outcome? How many times does Hunter Pence hit a ball three times off the bat to score a game winning run? It’s fun, but it is utter fantasy to think that is actually the smart way to do a baseball team. And it’s why the baseball world at large has moved on from a lot of those notions of building teams.
I don’t want to get the band back together, I want an org that has a repeatable system of success, like the Dodgers or Atlanta or the Brewers or Houston. These are all forward thinking, analytically driven orgs who are bent on finding the next Farhan Zaidi or Andrew Friedman. The orgs that go for the “good feelings” guys are like, the White Sox, hiring Tony La Russo.
spliffTONE
@mooksman: Finally a fellow Giants fan with some sense!
5TUNT1N
Mooks I agree with most of what you say, the conversation we were having was more “what did he do?” Then giving him kudos for what happened in his three years. I was excited to have farhan come aboard as like many others I thought it would bring the organization back into relevancy. Sadly by 22 it was very clear 5 years in with 1 winning season and a bottom third farm that wasn’t going to happen. I think we can understand having buster as a POBO vs Friedman or Dombrowski isn’t ideal. But like stated above earlier finding some people to help him run this organization daily isn’t a bad thing and he can def help him with that.
MLB Top 100 Commenter
Mooks
Any team that can draft (using that term loosely to include signings of young international prospects) and develop good young starting pitching can be consistently successful. I am not a Giants fan, but I definitely think their three rings was through good decisions and not just a bunch of lucky breaks. You do smart things to be in the mix, the main variable involving luck is injuries.
mooksman
I’m not saying there weren’t good decisions mixed in; they took on Timmy, which was a huge risk, for one. They got a lot out of guys like Lopez and Ramirez, and Romo was a shrewd pickup, as well. But on the whole, the success did not seem that repeatable. And yes, they were incredibly lucky with injuries, another bit of work that does not seem particularly repeatable. That FO took over in ‘96 and didn’t have a single homegrown player to hang their hat on until Matt Cain in, what, 2006? 07? And they certainly didn’t have a single decent position player pan out until Pablo Sandoval shocked the baseball world in ‘08 (and they spent years messing with him and calling him fat in the press). So, I guess what I’m saying is I hope the new FO doesn’t take 12 years to develop a single player that would be nice.
crocskin77
Mook – “But on the whole, the success did not seem that repeatable”…lol my head hurts from reading this drivel. They did repeat the success, 3 times in 5 years actually. Do you know what success wasn’t repeatable? The 1 winning season under your boy Farhan. You’re entitled to your opinion though, no matter how funny & baseless it is lol.
I do agree in that I don’t like Evans & want the FO to get younger & more analytical.
mooksman
They also had losing seasons between the titles, and the titles were all won by 1 core. By repeatable, I mean by the time one core ages out, the next core is already coming into prominence. A system of sustained winning. For instance, the Brewers just traded the jewel of their previous core last offseason for pieces that are already supplementing their next core. Their team this year was even better than last year. A team like the Dodgers or Brewers never really seems to tank, either, making the most out of their lower draft picks year after year. The Giants title-winning core was bookended by 90+ loss seasons that netted Evans and Co. high draft picks, leading to Lincecum and Posey. That’s good, but I’d rather skip the losing seasons altogether.
It is true that Zaidi only had 1 winning season (the best season in franchise history, that was so good it actually left him with a winning record overall), but he also only got 5 seasons to fix a fundamentally antiquated system, which is basically nothing in baseball years, while under a mandate from ownership never to tank. Of course, you can evaluate baseball executives however you want, but I think “winning seasons” amongst 5 seasons is just one piece of the puzzle. Even if the results hadn’t come along yet, the team was successfully transformed from an aging core with a barren farm system to a new emerging core of homegrown players, with more on the way, which is pretty impressive for a team that managed to stay in contention each year into September while this transformation took place. When I look at the process, I still think it was good, and over a longer period of time, would have yielded sustained success.
But whatever, he’s gone, and his acumen with him. The only thing that still gives me hope is that it’s actually pretty hard to find baseball operations personnel still operating as the Giants did in the ’10s, and that Posey will likely (hopefully) hire a young GM savvy enough to employ the same roster building techniques Zaidi and his ilk have pioneered for the last decade, but that is only if they do not hire current or former executives.
sad tormented neglected mariners fan
Imagine what giants fans would do if Bobby came back
jgoldfarb_4@msn.com 2
We do NOT want “Booby” Evans. Remember the trades of Bryan Reynolds, Zack Wheeler, and Adam Duval. The fact that he has interviewed for a number of positions with other teams and did not get hired for any of these jobs tells you all you need to know..
Jean Matrac
Adan Duvall? Seriously? You’re moaning over a guy that’s been traded 3 times, released 3 times, has been 6% below league average by wRC+ for his career, and has all of 10.5 bWAR for his 11 years in MLB? That Adam Duvall?
sad tormented neglected mariners fan
If Barry bonds was a manager he would be the worst ever
worthington
NO CHANCE.
CTS4
Depressing is having “shatkins” still in Toronto…Time is Up !!
julyn82001
If the Giants can take away Billy Owens from the A’s that would be a huge hiring. Billy is cut by the same scissor as his mentor Billy Beane, master of all Trades and creator of the Money Ball, which for some it was a very successful way of conducting baseball analytics while for others well it was not…
youngliam
I am personally hoping for this
SkenesandSlopes
Honest question: has Billy Owens done enough in Oakland to deserve a GM role? If we are looking at a track record of success, what has Owens done? He might be a great executive with an eye for talent. We do know he has yet to have success in Oakland with a team he has helped assemble. Yet.
Pete'sView
Even more than development, how instrumental was he in significant trades, though looking at the current A’s roster and the returns they’ve gotten in deals, I am not particularly impressed.
Not against Owens, just an observation.
highflyballintorightfield
Owens had a couple of the best lines in Moneyball (book) and Michael Lewis described him in a very funny way. Nothing to do with his current qualifications for this job, of course…
mooksman
Billy Beane called Farhan Zaidi the “greatest baseball mind of his generation”, I wonder if he’s available…
themightygin
He also called Addison Russell “the next Barry Larkin.”
Olddfrt.
Farhan Zahidi was also from Beanes A’s.
Datashark
The A’s recent spat of trades have been awful
ZackMorris
Going to be an interesting winter for the Giants. Not sure who will be the GM of the team but I have faith in Buster and I’m sure many of my fellow Giants fans feel the same way.
mlb fan
“But I have faith”..Many people are writing off Buster Posey before he’s even started, as though elitist Ivy League schools are a better training ground for baseball execs than actually playing and being around baseball at a high level.
I feel that “Buster” is going to surprise many people with his “feel”, expertise and acumen for building a baseball team.
ZackMorris
I feel as if he’s really going to change the culture of the franchise. He was a leader and a winner as a player and I’m hoping that same championship mentality he possessed on the field translates into him getting the right people in the right positions.
rememberthecoop
Based on what? His success as a player? Don’t get me wrong, I agree you shouldn’t write him off. People need to give him a chance. But at the same time, what are his qualifications for a job that is much different from being a baseball player? Again, not saying he won’t have success. But let’s be honest, no one knows if his skills will translate or not I guess we’ll see…
DanUgglasRing
Fine. I’ll do it.
disadvantage
It can’t go any worse than your attempt at riding a hoverboard, Mr. Uggla!
Ernie Riles
Bobby evans didn’t draft well and traded Reynolds to Pirates for old Cutch and traded for six years of Longo on the downside. Been there done that
mlb fan
“Six years of Longo”..Tampa got the good part of Longo and then, when the bill came due, they packed his bags and sent him(and the bill) to San Francisco.
This is a good example of a high level, no frills front office(Tampa)taking clear advantage of a lesser one.
HalosHeavenJJ
I am optimistic about Posey.
As a catcher he made a lot of in game adjustments and talked to pitchers about small mechanical adjustments. I think he’ll be good at evaluating pitching.
bestone
How about considering an Atkins (who needs a change of scenery)? I’m sure the Toronto fans would happily chip in with some $1 hotdogs and would be very happy to throw a “going away party” that would be HOF worthy….
Mikenmn
Interesting….Posey looking for a type of bench coach
Yanks4life22
Zaidi’s first experience with baseball was when he read Moneyball in college. Maybe as an organization identify what is wrong with that first before seeking candidates to fill his position.
Put John Sterling in Sarco Pod ASAP
Bud Black played baseball for years and is garbage. What about David Forst or Bill Schmidt? I don’t think when someone got into baseball matters. Especially for someone born in Canada then lived in the Philippines.
Stop gatekeeping baseball. He was just bad at his job, not because he found an interest in baseball later in life.
Tom the ray fan
Roger Dorn? Sold his best hitter and still won a pennant
sfjackcoke
Based on the replies here, it’s not clear everyone is on the same page as to how a modern day front office works. To that point not all front offices are run the same and it’s often the background of the senior baseball ops where others are brought in as GM’s assistant GM’s and/or other titles to either complement or supplement the background of the POBO.
Example, Sabean made his chops as a scout, he was very hands on when it came to the amateur draft. In most orgs while POBO ultimately is the sign off, amateur drafts are run by Farm Directors. Since 2022 that’s Kyle Haines, his official title is the Senior Director of Player Development.
Posey’s journey is unique going from player to ownership to now POBO and it’s important to note, he remains an owner. I think that is an important distinction. This is the MLB equivalent of a Fortune 500 company dismissing a CEO and replacing them with someone from the Board of Directors. Posey is here to execute the vision strategy of the ownership group, the leadership he exhibited in the dugout no doubt will now be evident in baseball ops.
Actually the name in the article that I found most interesting was James Click who has an atypical VP title/role in Toronto and their senior guys in TOR are on the hot seat. Maybe he’s looking for the right traditional role.
I do get why Bobby Evans’ name would pop up, he has heavy operations experience in particular on the MiLB side. In the end I expect the Giants to fill out their executive ranks with individuals who will assist / support Posey execute strategy, philosophy. They are talking to people now, I’m sure there’s a candidate or two with a team still playing they might have an interest.
MLB Top 100 Commenter
I think there must be more to the story that James Click has not been offered another opportunity.
None of us know if Buster is going to be merely a big picture figurehead (e.g. a “poser”) or the hands-on detail-oriented leader who is up until 2:00 a.m. reviewing emails and reports from the scouts and analytics guys.
rememberthecoop
I believe many people underestimate the value of having good people skills in this business. You need to be able to read people. And you have to be able to articulate a vision and a plan to achieve it. Communication skills are at the heart of what these jobs are all about. Click was lacking in those areas from what I know.
bestone
I would think that Click should separate himself from the %#$&show that Shatkins is running, whilst he still has some credibility left…..or the Jays should let him run the show.
rememberthecoop
And let me see…you’re the guy who knows and that is because you did the job back in…oh wait, you never did the job. It’s kind of insulting to hear you lecturing to people. Give your opinion, but it’s just an opinion like anyone else’s opinion. I could brag about what I did, but I prefer to stay incognito.
64' Yanks
The perfect GM for the job Brian Cashman! He will bring winning baseball to the bay area, and he’ll do it with his famous dumpster dives. Plus, the Embarcadero provides many opportunities for the Trashman!
jints1
This is what I was afraid of with the Posey hire. He would tap folks he knows best. Bobby Evans is one great guy but was overmatched dealing with other teams. The Giants should have fired Zaidi with Kaplan and brought in a new PBOPs who would have hired his or her mgr.
YankeesBleacherCreature
Poach James Click.
Datashark
Posey would be smart to get multiple people with extensively player personnel scouting in the background — Dodgers do this very well to produce player in their system
Ranger Danger19
Where is James Click these days? He would be on my short list.
zacharydmanprin
He’s VP of the Blue Jays.
zacharydmanprin
Please take Billy Owens. Maybe the A’s can have a decent draft for a change.
sfjackcoke
The more I think about it, the more I like this hire. Posey is already in the building, this team has a lot of work to do this off-season and couldn’t be searching for a POBO. He has longevity in the organization something Farhan did not as an outside hire. Specifically he’s a winner, he and this ownership group have gotten a big time taste of what it means to have a parade. Make no mistake they want more.
As for Evans, he was hired by Sabean in 1994, prior that he’d been in the Commissioners office. He’s a well respected executive with experience in just about every facet of baseball ops. His time as GM was short, Bobby was asked to keep/force the contention window to stay open, to try to win one more time and the moves he made at that time are reflective of that.
Click is VP of Baseball Strategy in Toronto, he’s got an interesting background. He was one of many who were a part of Baseball Prospectus back in the day that ended up landing in front offices. Toronto guys wanted him, they created a role for him. I am all about having as many smart people in the room as possible. Click has a ring, he too knows what that means, feels like.
extreme113
Kim Ng
Kim Ng
YankeesBleacherCreature
I thought about her but I don’t think she would work under a rookie PoBO with no experience. Maybe for his role if Posey was GM instead. They should try to find some kind of advisor role for anyway.
talking baseball
No more A’s or Dodgers employees.
Foothills R
Posey hasn’t done anything yet with the GM position nor has he indicated who he is interviewing or who he is leaning towards hiring. And the fans go wild over reporters writing cow dung for clicks. Maybe Buster convinces Sam Fuld to come back to the Bay Area.
Bart Harley Jarvis
I certainly hope that’s not the case with Sam Fuld. I love the stability DD has brought to the Phillies front office, and I hope it stays that way.
SFBay314
Please anyone but Bobby. Ned before Bobby and I don’t want either!
Get Kim Ng on the list.
tonightsspecialguest
Will the Thrill!
tonightsspecialguest
x.com/KNBR/status/1735449104149524842
ohyeadam
Levine
Non Roster Invitee
Scott Sharp or bust, Buster!