REPORT: San Francisco Giants to Offer Farhan Zaidi Front Office Role

The San Francisco Giants and their search for front office personnel seems to be coming to a climax.

Jon Morosi reported today that the San Francisco Giants are preparing to offer current Dodgers’ General Manager, Farhan Zaidi, one of their open front office roles.

This is beyond earlier reports from Ken Rosenthal that they wish to interview him ($$), and that he will likely interview for them.

Pulling Zaidi away would be a big blow to the front office and talent evaluation of the Los Angeles Dodgers, something that has helped them sustain success and build out a massive depth in talent from the big league squad to the minor league squad. While the move would be seen as a coup, there are some legitimate concerns over whether or not Zaidi is the right guy for the job.

Since Zaidi joined, the Dodgers have appeared in three straight NLCS, and two straight World Series titles. However, in both World Series, some decisions and even accusations of relying to heavily on analytical reports and data to make in game decisions, have been thrown out there. To be fair, most of those are ridiculous.

A lot of the decisions the Dodgers made that backfired, were legitimately bad decisions. I’m not sure how you can draw a line between bad decision and analytics use and come up with the idea that the front office is forcing Dave Roberts to manage based on certain data.

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It’s 100% possible and plausible that the Dodgers win a lot in spite of Roberts’ managing ability and style. We honestly shouldn’t be too shocked that a first time manager doesn’t have the feel of a manager with a 24 years in charge of a team. Let’s also be clear as to how Bruce Bochy manages. He goes in with a ton of information on matchups and makes the correct decision a good amount of the time. It’s not like he goes in blind and just says, “My gut says Will Smith here so we’re going with him.” That’s not how it works, nor how it has ever worked. So, let’s get back to Zaidi.

Since Farhan Zaidi joined the Dodgers front office ahead of the 2015 season, they were able to work out some shrewd deals that helped manage their payroll, and stay atop the National League from a competition standpoint.

While the Dodgers had been a force during the regular season in the past, they were never quite good enough, or deep enough to get beyond the divisional series. Zaidi and Friedmann built out a roster and handed over the keys to a Ferrari to a first time manager. That roster has yielded 287 wins in three years. The Giants win total over their most recent FOUR YEARS  is only 21 more (308). That seems like a big difference. And you can argue the Giant have had more talent on their squad over those past few years, especially when it comes to pitching.

The difference is that the Dodgers have built out a 25 man roster that is capable of producing runs all the way through, and against any potential matchup. The Giants haven’t come close to that since 2014. So what is the way they’ll be able to get back on top? Steal from their number one rival. To be honest, it’s brilliant. If it happens, it might be one of the smartest things the Giants could potentially do.