Farhan Zaidi provides Giants managerial search update, timeline

Farhan Zaidi provides Giants managerial search update, timeline originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

SAN FRANCISCO -- Farhan Zaidi's first managerial search as the Giants' president of baseball operations officially lasted about a month, but he actually had a full season to think about what he wanted to do.

Because Bruce Bochy announced his desire to step away at the start of spring training in 2019, Zaidi had all season to put together a short list. In the end, his choice ended up being someone who wasn't initially considered. When the Philadelphia Phillies fired Gabe Kapler at the end of that season, he immediately became a candidate in San Francisco, and ultimately got the job from a man he worked with in Los Angeles.

The decision to fire Kapler last Friday came about so quickly at the end of the year that the Giants had never considered replacements. But Zaidi dug into the process over the weekend, and he said interviews will likely start this week.

"Just in terms of the timing, I think there's a good chance we start with internal candidates maybe by the end of this week," he said. "We're just kind of finalizing who we are going to have in formal consideration internally. I would guess we'll start reaching out to teams on permissions to people in other organizations at the beginning of next week."

Zaidi said he expects to interview one or two current Giants staff members, although the front office hasn't made final decisions on which coaches will be under consideration. The list could include bench coach and interim manager Kai Correa, bullpen coach Craig Albernaz and third base coach Mark Hallberg, along with longtime bench coach Ron Wotus, who has a lot of support throughout the organization.

The Giants will have to ask permission to interview candidates currently in other organizations, although that is a formality. The one complication would be in asking about coaches who are with playoff clubs, which the Giants are familiar with. Team president and CEO Larry Baer had to wait to interview Zaidi in 2018 because he was with a Los Angeles Dodgers team that reached the World Series.

There are several coaches with current playoff clubs who figure to be popular names this offseason and could be considered, including Joe Espada of the Houston Astros, Will Venable and Donnie Ecker of the Texas Rangers and Rodney Linares of the Tampa Bay Rays.

The Giants might have to work around some schedules, but Zaidi still anticipates having a new manager in place by the start of the offseason in early November. The finalists likely will meet with members of ownership at the end, including Greg Johnson, Buster Posey and Baer, and Zaidi said it's possible that candidates meet with ace and team leader Logan Webb, too. Webb has said he would like to have a voice.

"Players have varying levels of interest in it. He's very interested, and I've already had a couple of conversations with him," Zaidi said. "I've had informal conversations with a number of players (to get) their feedback on the state of the clubhouse and what they think would be good qualities or helpful qualities for this group of players in a new manager.

"I will probably be soliciting Logan's thoughts and I'm expecting some unsolicited thoughts as well. I think he's very interested and he should be, and I value his input."

Webb is the only Giant with a long-term contract at the moment, and that includes management. Zaidi initially signed a five-year deal with a team option for 2024, which will be picked up. He said his own status as a potential "lame duck" executive won't complicate the search.

"The reaction and the amount of incoming calls we've gotten serves to support the view that this is a really highly sought after position in an organization that's really well regarded in the game and within the industry," Zaidi said. "I don't anticipate any issues there. Some of our candidates may be people that I've had some past relationship with and maybe that helps provide some reassurance there, but even for people who don't, you're coming in to be the manager of this team and this organization and I haven't sensed any concerns from people on that."

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