When it comes to managerial stability and continuity, few franchises can match the San Francisco Giants over the past four decades. Now the Giants are turning to a three-time Manager of the Year to get back on track.
After a quick interview process, they are ready to announce the hiring of Bob Melvin, sources familiar with the matter told The Athletic on condition of anonymity.
The Giants acted quickly when the Padres granted permission to talk to Melvin, who had one year left on his contract to manage in San Diego but who was known to have clashed with Padres GM AJ Preller. Melvin met Monday with several top Giants officials at the baseball operations and ownership levels, including board member Buster Posey. Apparently, nothing emerged from those conversations that would dissuade San Francisco officials from believing that Melvin, a Bay Area native who turns 62 on Saturday, was the right choice at the moment.
Melvin would begin his 21st season as a major league manager – a successful second career that began when the Seattle Mariners hired him to replace Lou Piniella prior to the 2003 season. During his five seasons with the Arizona Diamondbacks, he won the National League Manager of the Year award and added two American League Manager of the Year awards while leading the Oakland A’s in six of his 11 seasons there from 2011 to 2021 postseason led.
With the A’s in downsizing mode, Oakland officials allowed Melvin to escape the final year of his contract and take the job in San Diego, where the big-spending Padres were heading to the World Series. The Padres limped into the postseason with an 89-73 record in 2022 and overcame Fernando Tatis Jr.’s suspension to upset the Los Angeles Dodgers and reach the NLCS. But last season, the Padres experienced further unrest at all levels of the organization. They needed to win 14 of their last 16 games to finish with a winning record (82-80) and missed the postseason despite a $250 million payroll and a +104 run differential, better than any NL team except the Dodgers and Atlanta Braves was superior.
Apparently the Giants’ top decision makers didn’t view the disappointment in San Diego as a reflection of Melvin. The Giants must cover up their own instability as president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi enters the final guaranteed year of his contract. And the Giants need to rebuild their clubhouse culture after firing Gabe Kapler on the final weekend of the season, as they need new leadership and more connections within an aging clubhouse.
Kapler was Zaidi’s hand-picked choice and had success in four seasons: He led the organization through the challenge of a pandemic-shortened 2020 season played under strict health and safety protocols and then won NL Manager of the Year after He had led the Giants to a franchise-record 107 regular-season wins and a surprise NL West title in 2021. Under the unconventional 13-person coaching staff Kapler assembled, most of whom had no experience in the major league players, several have developed into valuable contributors and are expected to be retained under Melvin.
But something was missing, as the Giants lost 22 of their last 28 road games, posted a record of 8-16 under Kapler in September and finished the season at 79-83 when their playoff odds were above 75 percent as recently as August 3. How As outfielder Mike Yastrzemski described it on the final weekend of the season, “I think there was kind of a ‘self-care’ vibe that set in.” I don’t know where that came from, but it kind of took hold and everyone felt like he could do his own thing, and it felt like there was no whole group effort or sense of unity.”
The Giants are seeking more continuity in the lineup, rotation and dugout, where they have had a clear lineage over nearly four decades, from Roger Craig to Dusty Baker to Felipe Alou to Bruce Bochy – another manager the Padres previously hired from the Giants poached him for the 2007 season, even though he still has one year left on his contract in San Diego.
Melvin is not expected to last 13 seasons like Bochy. It is not clear whether he will arrive on a contract of more than one year and how long he will continue to manage the club. Perhaps he sees a stay in San Francisco, however long, as a fitting place to round out his four-decade career in uniform. Melvin grew up on the Peninsula and graduated from Menlo-Atherton High before playing for Cañada College in Redwood City and Cal-Berkeley. He was 24 years old when the Detroit Tigers traded him to San Francisco on a six-player contract in 1985, and he spent the next three seasons playing under Craig as the Giants’ part-time catcher.
“I think Roger Craig was the first guy I played for who really communicated,” Melvin told John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle in 2019. “He let you know when you were going to play. He would say, ‘Look, you’re going to play this pitcher in two days, and here’s why.’ That resonated with me, and I feel like I do that as best as I can with my players.”
Required reading
(Photo: Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)