The Giants’ managerial search has mostly been focused on internal candidates thus far, and another in-house name has now been added to the list, as The Athletic’s Andrew Baggarly reports that assistant coach Alyssa Nakken has interviewed in regards to the managerial vacancy.
Nakken has been a member of San Francisco’s organization since 2014, starting as an intern and then working in “a hybrid role within the front office that included event logistics, business development and coordinating health and wellness initiatives,” Baggarly writes. This paved the way for Nakken’s hiring as an assistant coach prior to the 2020 season, making her the first woman to be part of a Major League team’s coaching staff. Continuing this trailblazing path, Nakken is now the first woman known to ever formally interview to be a Major League manager.
The Giants assembled an unusually large coaching staff under former manager Gabe Kapler, as Nakken was one of 13 coaches assembled to provide players with a wide variety of personalized assessment. Baggarly notes that Nakken’s duties focused on in-game planning, baserunning, and outfield instruction.
Beyond the obvious historic significance of what her hire would mean, the Giants’ interest in Nakken also continues the team’s apparent preference towards a first-time manager. None of the internal names (bench coach Kai Correa, third base coach Mark Hallberg, adviser and former third base coach Ron Wotus, and catching bullpen coach Craig Albernaz) who have interviewed or are on the radar for interviews have ever managed at the MLB level before, apart from Correa’s three games as interim manager this season after Kapler was fired. Hallberg and Albarnaz have managed a couple of years in the minors, while Wotus has seven seasons of minor league managing but not since 1997.
Kapler wasn’t a first-time manager when hired by the Giants in 2020, as he had previously been the Phillies’ skipper for the previous two seasons. However, Kapler did fit the modern style of a younger, more analytically-inclined manager who works closely with the front office in shaping game-day strategies. With all of San Francisco’s known candidates except Wotus fitting this general description, it would seem that president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi is leaning towards a first-time hire, and perhaps someone already familiar with how the Giants operate. Beyond just the in-house names, Rangers bench coach Donnie Ecker has also been mentioned as person of interest in the Giants’ search, and Ecker worked as the Giants’ hitting coach in 2020-21 before moving on to Texas.