San Francisco Giants: Top Ten Candidates to Replace Bobby Evans

The first of what should be several dominoes fell today as the San Francisco Giants announced that they have fired general manager Bobby Evans.

Evan had spent the last 25 years in the Giants organization and the last four as the GM.

According to San Francisco Chronicle reporter Hank Schulman, an announcement is expected Monday. Reports indicate they are planning on asking Evans to stay in the organization, but no word yet if Evans plans to stay or go.

San Francisco is currently 166-224 since the 2016 All-Star break and will finish in fourth place this season after finishing in dead last in 2017.

General Managers tend to take the fall when a team loses, but it is clear that the current 25 man roster needs a shake up. Most of the Giants core are on the wrong side of 30, and it will be the job of the next GM to find players that can turn this team around.

USA Today reporter Bob Nightengale suggested that former assistant GM Ned Colletti is the favorite to replace Evans.

Colletti became an assistant GM to Brian Sabean in 1997 and left the Giants organization in 2005 to join the rival Los Angeles Dodgers. Colletti was the GM for the Dodgers from 2006-2014.

While Colletti certainly knows the Giants front office well and has worked with Sabean before, the right move might be to bring someone in who doesn’t have a deep history with the franchise and can look at the roster more objectively.

Schulman quickly ended speculation about Colletti, however.

Here are ten possible candidates that could be great fits as the next San Francisco GM, compiled by Giants Minor League expert @giantsprospects.

David Forst

Forst is currently the general manager of the Oakland Athletics. This is his second season in that role for the other team by the Bay. When Billy Beane was promoted to executive vice rresident of baseball operations, Forst was promoted as well.  This is the 18th season Forst has been in the A’s organization.

His main responsibilities for Oakland is working on all player acquisitions, contract negotiations and player evaluations.

Farhan Zaidi

Zaidi is currently the general manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers. This is his fourth season in that role for the Giants biggest rivals.

Prior to joining the Dodgers, Zaidi spent 10 seasons with the Oakland A’s, finishing his tenure there as the assistant general manager and director of baseball operations in 2014. With the Athletics, Zaidi’s primary responsibilities included providing statistical analysis for evaluating and targeting players in the amateur draft, free agent and trade markets. He has become one of the top minds in the game for analyzing data from advance scouting reports.

If the Giants were able to go after an outside candidate from a rival like the A’s or Dodgers, that would be an interesting move for the fan base.

While bragging rights within the front office isn’t high on the list for fans usually, the Giants fans know that they need to upgrade their player evaluation overall.

Bottom line is Forst and Zaidi are two of the best in the game and bringing in either could help revamp a front office in desperate need for a makeover.

Brandon Taubman

Taubman was just recently promoted to assistant general manager of the Houston Astros. Before the promotion, he was senior director of baseball operations. Formerly of Ernst & Young, the Cornell graduate is only 32 and rising up the ranks in the Houston front office.

If there is a better example of building a team back up, it’s the Astros, and bringing in one of their top evaluators  could be key to a turn around.

Jeff Luhnow was promoted to president of baseball operations and extended through 2023, so if Taubman wanted to run his own franchise, he will have to wait a long time in Houston.

Jeff Greenberg

Greenberg is currently the director of baseball operations for the Chicago Cubs. He joined the team in 2012 as a baseball operations intern and was then promoted to assistant to the general manager in 2015.

Greenberg was part of one of the most improbable turnarounds in sports history, helping the Cubs end a 106 year World Series drought in 2016.

Peter Minasian

Minasian is currently the vice president of baseball operations and the assistant general manager for the Atlanta Braves. Despite a big shakeup in the front office after some disastrous contracts and blockbuster trades, the Braves clinched a playoff spot this season.

Atlanta has always been a model of what Sabean tried to build in San Francisco behind pitching and defense, but today’s Braves are electric at the plate and in the field.

In the case of Taubman, Greenberg, and Minasian, these are men with recent experience building from the cellar of their divisions to the top. With the bad contracts the Giants now have and the depleted farm system that is just starting to be rebuilt, someone with first hand experience of a rebuild could be a huge bonus.

Mike Chernoff

Chernoff is currently the general manager for the Cleveland Indians. He became the assistant general manager in 2010. After declining an interview with the San Diego Padres for the GM job in 2014, he was promoted to general manager of the Indians the following year.

The Indians have already clinched a spot in the 2018 playoffs, making this the third straight American League Central title and the third straight trip to the post-season under Chernoff.

Matt Arnold

Arnold is currently the vice president and assistant general manager for the Milwaukee Brewers. This is his third season in that role for the Brewers. His areas of focus include Major League operations, roster construction, financial planning, contract negotiations and player personnel decisions.

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Before joining the Brewers, Arnold was in the Tampa Bay organization. Arnold began working for the Rays in 2007.

Arnold, who is only 39, has already spent 17 seasons in professional baseball. He also has experience working in the baseball operations departments for the Los Angeles Dodgers (2000), Texas Rangers (2002) and Cincinnati Reds (2003-06).

One common thread for all of these candidates is they are coming from successful organizations that have taken a specific interest in the analytics of the game. With so many new stats worthy of analyzing to determine a player’s true value, it is nearly impossible to simply scout players the traditional way anymore.

While scouting will never go away and the infamous eye test will still tell baseball experts a lot about a player, the overwhelming proof in the most recent World Series winners and participants is that analytics is how front offices will be run from now on.

The Giants seem willing to get on board with a new approach and these possible candidates would be the right place to start.