San Francisco Giants: Zaidi Hire Represents Break With Past

Well, it’s official. The San Francisco Giants announced that former Dodgers general manager Farhan Zaidi will be the next president of baseball operations.

If you are one of the many fans who has been clamoring for the San Francisco Giants to shake things up and head in a different direction, then this move is sure to delight you.

On the one hand, this move is very exciting. It is a very clear message that things will not be operating as usual in the front office going forward. But on the flip side of that coin, that is sort of scary.

Scary mainly because no one knows what Zaidi wants to do with Madison Bumgarner as well as other players who hold a special place in our hearts.

But, I think the general consensus is that a move like this was necessary. Zaidi has proven that he can help a team become one of the most talented in baseball. Obviously, he started out pretty good with the Dodgers as talented as they were in 2014.

The Giants are in a much different place talent-wise. It is fair to assume that it will take some time for them to get to the Dodgers’ level talent-wise unless they are able to land big free agents or make some blockbuster trades in the upcoming off-seasons.

However, it would be wise for the San Francisco Giants to remember that they won the World Series three times in five years without having the most talented roster in baseball. They had magic, luck, great pitching, defense, and timely hitting.

It certainly wouldn’t hurt having a supremely talented roster, but it’s not everything. The Giants need better players on their team, no question, but they need the right players.

I think that is something that the Brian Sabean and Bobby Evans era was so adept at acquiring the right players at the right time.

In my view, the Dodgers under Zaidi tried to acquire the absolute best player possible, guys like Manny Machado, which certainly helped them but weren’t quite able to get them over the top.

Nonetheless, Zaidi’s hiring represents at the very least a break with the past. A beautiful nostalgia-filled past with great memories that we know cannot be exactly replicated. The Giants can’t win in exactly the same way that they did, but they can certainly take elements of their past success and apply it to a more futuristic approach.

It is exciting, it is scary, but at the very least it provides some hope that perhaps the San Francisco Giants can get back on track.