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Pete Putila

Giants Hire Pete Putila As General Manager

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The Giants announced Monday night they’ve hired Pete Putila as their new general manager. Putila, formerly an Astros assistant GM, steps in as the #2 in the front office hierarchy under president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi. Previous GM Scott Harris departed a few weeks ago to take over baseball operations with the Tigers.

Zaidi informed reporters last week the team was hoping to have a GM in place by early November. San Francisco struck far earlier than that, nabbing the well-regarded Putila away from Houston. “Being where we are and facing a big offseason, I think it’s going to be a great thing for us to have some fresh perspectives in the organization,” Zaidi said at the time. “A new general manager could certainly bring a fresh perspective on our roster, player development and evaluation philosophies.”

A West Virginia graduate, Putila spent more than a decade in the Houston front office. Originally hired as an intern in 2011, he quickly moved through the front office under former GM Jeff Lunhow. He spent a fair amount of time working in the build-up of the Houston farm system during the Astros rebuild, earning a promotion to director of player development by 2016. Towards the end of the 2019 campaign, Putila earned a bump to assistant GM.

The following offseason, the Astros parted ways with Lunhow in the wake of the public revelation of the extent of the 2017 sign-stealing operation. New GM James Click kept Putila in a high-ranking front office position, however, reflecting the value a pair of baseball operations leaders placed on his input.

Putila was a candidate for the Giants GM search back in 2019. San Francisco ended up poaching Harris from the Cubs front office that time around, but Putila apparently made a favorable impression on Zaidi and his high-ranking staff at the time. He also garnered some consideration in the Pirates GM search that winter, but Pittsburgh eventually tabbed Ben Cherington to lead baseball ops.

It’s a pivotal offseason for the Giants, who disappointed with an 81-81 season this year. Last winter, San Francisco mostly focused on retaining the core of a team that claimed 107 wins and an NL West title in 2021, aside from replacing Kevin Gausman with Carlos Rodón in free agency. There figures to be a fair bit more turnover this winter, with Zaidi on the record about his desire to get a younger, more athletic position player group. Putila will step into the biggest role of his career, helping Zaidi oversee that likely aggressive winter.

Latest On Pirates’ Front Office Hiring Search

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While the rest of the sport has turned much of its attention to roster decisions and other offseason business, the Pirates are still working to nail down their baseball operations leadership. It seems the process of replacing dismissed GM Neal Huntington is now reaching a culmination.

That said, there is a new name in play that hadn’t previously been known to be under consideration. Astros assistant general manager of player development Pete Putila has been involved in the search, per MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand (via Twitter). Previously considered by the Giants in their GM search, Putila currently stands as one of the top lieutenants of Houston GM Jeff Luhnow.

Whether Putila is a strong candidate to take the top ops job isn’t known. It’d certainly be a big step up for an executive that had only recently ascended to an AGM title. It is at least theoretically possible he could be considered for a GM title if the Pittsburgh organization ends up hiring a top-level decisionmaker who functions as a president of baseball ops or chief baseball officer.

Most observers appear to see this as a two-horse race. Former Red Sox GM and current Blue Jays exec Ben Cherington is believed to be holding his second-round sit-down today, per Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Twitter link). And it appears Brewers AGM Matt Arnold will do the same tomorrow; Robert Murray had tweeted that Arnold would get another interview.

But that’s hardly certain. Internal candidate Kevan Graves, who is currently serving as interim GM, joins Putila as additional possibilities. Graves was believed to be preparing for his own second interview at some point this week, Rob Biertempfel of The Athletic tweeted yesterday. Graves also joined Putila as a candidate for the Giants job that ultimately went to Scott Harris.

Whoever takes the helm will need to get right to work. The Bucs have loads of needs and some very big questions to answer. In particular, the organization will have to gauge trade interest in star center fielder Starling Marte, who figures to be in quite some demand and could be cashed in as part of a retooling effort.

Kevan Graves, Pete Putila Under Consideration In Giants’ GM Search

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10:38am: San Francisco has also considered Pirates assistant general manager Kevan Graves for the GM post, Rosenthal tweets. Graves is currently serving as the Pirates’ GM on an interim basis after the firing of longtime general manager Neal Huntington late last month, however, and Rosenthal notes that he’s a candidate for both positions.

8:33am: The Giants are considering Pete Putila in their search for a general manager to serve under president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (via Twitter). Putila presently serves as the Astros’ director of player development.

Putila becomes at least the second known candidate for the opening, though it’s possible to surmise at least one more. As Rosenthal reported yesterday, and we discussed here, Cubs assistant GM Scott Harris is known to bee under consideration. And it appears likely that Athletics AGM Billy Owens has at least been contemplated in some manner, though the current status there is not known.

It remains entirely unclear when a hiring decision will be made. As noted yesterday, the Giants are likely planning to do so before long, given that the offseason market is now open for business. At the same time, the team doesn’t face much pressure from the executive market since most other teams are not hiring a #2 baseball ops exec at the moment. (The Pirates are still engaged in a search for their top job, which certainly could have an impact.)

Putila has helmed the Astros’ farm system for over three years now, overseeing a key component of one of the game’s most recently successful organizations. He brought a varied background to that role after five prior seasons with the Houston club. Whether or not Putila is picked up by the Giants, his involvement in this process makes him only the latest of many Astros executives to draw interest from other outfits.

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