by DrLefty
So far most of the offseason Giants news has focused on front office changes (most notably the hiring of Buster Posey as President of Baseball Operations and Zack Minasian as General Manager) and coaching staff changes (so far, the Giants have lost and replaced their pitching coach and have lost two hitting coaches, replacement pending). Those changes, perhaps, give us some insights as to how the Posey Regime might be different from the one that just ended. Here a few notable indicators.
Promoting From Within
When Farhan Zaidi became POBO in 2018, he temporarily had his hands tied in the sense that long-time iconic manager Bruce Bochy was still in place and not likely to be pushed out before he wanted to go. When Zaidi finally had the chance to hire his own guy after the 2019 season, he did not promote long-time coach Ron Wotus to the top spot. Instead, he hired his former Dodger colleague, Gabe Kapler. Of Bochy’s staff, Kapler retained only Wotus, hiring a large new cast of young and relatively inexperienced coaches. (Two of those, Mark Hallberg and Alyssa Nakken, were already in the Giants organization, and those two continue to be on current manager Bob Melvin’s staff.) When it came time to hire a GM, Zaidi twice went outside the organization, hiring Scott Harris in 2020 and Pete Putila in 2023. A few top-level front office personnel, such as farm director Kyle Haines and assistant GM Jeremy Shelley, have persisted through three different front office regimes, dating back to the Sabean/Evans front office before Zaidi.
Given that Zaidi’s tenure was notably unsuccessful, one might have thought that Posey would clean house and bring in new blood and fresh perspectives. But that’s not what’s happened so far. Posey’s biggest decision to date was to select a right-hand man/woman who could help him quickly manage his brand-new responsibilities. With many appealing candidates from other organizations–and some, like Shelley, who seemed like possible internal candidates–Posey surprised people by instead promoting Minasian. Minasian in a sense threads the needle of “new blood”–he spent 14 years working in the Brewers’ front office and has extensive scouting/player development credentials–and “inside hire” in that he began working for the Giants when Zaidi was hired in 2019. So he has both inside knowledge of his current organization and extensive knowledge of how at least one other team does things (and perhaps more, given that his older brother Perry is also a GM and his father was a clubhouse manager).
As for the other openings that have developed, assistant pitching coach J.P. Martinez replaced Bryan Price, and it appears that the hitting coach opening will also be filled internally by either AAA hitting coach Damon Minor or Mike McCormack, the current minor league hitting coordinator. Similarly, it seems that the hitting coach staff will go from three to two (incumbent Pat Burrell plus one other coach). The Giants further announced the creation of a new position, VP of Player Development, and again filled that from within, hiring former player Randy Winn, who was already in the organization as a roving instructor and scout (not to mention being in the rotating cast of studio analysis on NBCS-BA). It’s worth noting that these moves mean that two long-time employees, Shelley and Haines, will be reporting to two relative newbies who’ve now been promoted above them (Minasian and Winn). That’s an interesting dynamic, and one that again speaks to a balance between wanting newer approaches while still valuing insider knowledge and internal stability. It seems like it could have inherent challenges, but it also suggests that Posey is being extremely thoughtful about all this and not going for either of the “easy” answers–just automatically promote everyone to the next step up or fire everyone and hire outsiders.
Personnel transitions are to be expected during regime change. The outgoing hitting coaches, Justin Viele and Pedro Guerrero, had a year each on their contracts and were not fired. But they were “allowed to leave” the Giants when they landed positions with the Texas Rangers and Miami Marlins, respectively. Similarly, deposed GM Putila was going to be “reassigned” (he was also still under contract), but instead he was allowed to leave the Giants and become assistant GM for the Atlanta Braves. Since none of them left for promotions, one would guess that these three employees either felt they were not a good fit for the new world order or the Giants politely let them know that finding a new job now might be a better long-term move for their careers.
Changes in Attitude
The other type of change that Posey, Melvin, and Minasian have been signaling is a different perspective about how to develop players. This is a bit harder to measure and quantify than personnel moves, but it may be even more important. Three specific points have been raised in interviews with Posey:
- The Giants should lean (back) into their strengths as an organization and specifically the characteristics of their home ballpark. Posey, of course, presided over a championship era led by pitching and defense, much less so by offense. For example, the 2012 team was last in the majors in home runs, yet they won 94 games and ran away with the NL West, while Posey himself won the batting title and the NL MVP award. Zaidi certainly did not prioritize defense in his team building. Rather, he wanted “defensive versatility” (which in practice meant players who weren’t good at any position) and emphasized offense over defense (see Pederson, Joc). Zaidi would give lip service to improving the defense, but he never backed it up in his roster-building.
- The Giants should rethink their approach at the plate. Andrew Baggarly has a new piece in The Athletic today with quotes from Melvin and Posey that takes a deep dive into the Giants’ propensity to strike out way too much and to be especially putrid with two strikes. Specifically, it suggests that hitters should move away from the Zaidi/Kapler philosophy to wait for your pitch and only swing at pitches with which you can do damage–let’s call it the “Brandon Belt” or “LaMonte Wade Jr” prototype–and be more well-rounded at the plate, willing to adjust with two strikes, choke up, or even put down a bunt. As Baggarly noted, this will “require some recalibration from young hitters who came up through the organization under the previous administration.” It will also require some “recalibration” as to what types of hitters the Giants might pursue in trades or free agency and how they develop young hitters in the minor leagues. Posey astutely observed, in an interview during last week’s GM meetings, that such a shift in philosophy might also require an explicit change in messaging about how hitters will be rewarded:
“But how do you convince your players to do that when (they’d say), ‘Well, if I drive in 80 but I’ve got a .770 OPS instead of an .850 OPS, am I going to be penalized for that?’ So that’s what I see as the crux of the issue.”
- The Giants should focus on developing “complete” players. Posey has made comments suggesting that his front office will take a hard look at how young players are moved through the system. (This might in fact explain the elevation of Winn over Haines.) How, for example, did Marco Luciano make it all the way to the majors before the Giants finally learned the hard way that he can’t, in fact, play shortstop at that level? Scouts and experts had been saying that about Luciano since he was a teenager. Not only did the Giants stubbornly persist in keeping him at SS but also did not have him learn another position(s) as a just-in-case backup. So there he was in the majors in May (with a desperately needed .975 OPS in 10 games), but he was so unplayable at SS that they had to send him back to AAA to learn second base on the fly. When that (not surprisingly) wasn’t a quick fix, they cut his season short and announced he was going to learn to be an outfielder. A different example is that of Wade Meckler, who as a hitter is exactly the kind of guy the Giants want to encourage now, but who also can’t play the outfield with any level of competence–so now they’re trying to retrain him to play 2B.
To sum up all of these musings, it feels like things are changing. How personnel, in the front office, in the dugout, and on the field, are evaluated and promoted seems to be changing. “New,” just for the sake of “new,” isn’t the primary value–but just going back to old ways doesn’t seem to sum it up, either.
Right now, this is all very hypothetical. We don’t know how it will translate to offseason roster moves, and we’re months/years away from observing what it will all mean for the product on the field. But we could probably take some encouragement from the apparent rebirth of the Golden State Warriors so far this season. They were widely considered to be irrelevant, done for. But a few things changed in the offseason. They made some roster additions and added a coach who’s their new defensive coordinator (Jerry Stackhouse) and oh, look, they’re one of the best defenses in the NBA this season. Draymond Green had some time to think about things and came into this season in “the best shape of his life” and an improved temperament to boot–and he’s playing great. They had a painful parting of the ways with franchise icon Klay Thompson, and so far, that appears to be one of those developments that is working well for both sides. These were also subtle, incremental kinds of changes. They didn’t go out and get Paul George (they tried), nor have they traded for Giannis (they still could). But it’s all working in some “2021 Giants” types of ways. And, of course, they still have Steve Kerr and Steph Curry. The 2021 Giants had Buster Posey, and now, in a different “uniform,” the 2025 Giants will have him, too. And perhaps Bob Melvin will be a more worthy equivalent to Kerr now that he’s out from under Zaidi’s thumb.
Rule 5 Guys
As Greek Giant noted, the deadline to protect minor leaguers from the Rule 5 draft by adding them to the 40-man roster is coming up this Tuesday (Nov. 19). The MLB.com article that GG cited mentioned pitcher Carson Seymour, SS Aeverson Arteaga, and catcher Oneil Perez, specifically (I believe) because those are the three on the Giants’ top-30 prospects list who are Rule 5 eligible. Seymour seems like a good bet to be added, as does another AAA Carson (Ragsdale, not Whisenhunt–he still has a year to go). Arteaga seems unlikely, having missed most of the 2024 season after having thoracic outlet surgery, and he still hasn’t played above High A. By similar logic, it would be surprising if Perez, who also hasn’t played above A ball, was picked off in the Rule 5 Draft.
Have you entered the MyRule5Guy™ contest? I have! Here’s the info from HaakAway:
Here is Real Off-Season Baseball… the MyGuy™ Rule Five Ballot.
Deadline is this Monday, November 18 midnight Willie Mays Field Time.
You can write in a name too.
Here are a couple of “Change” songs to take us out. Lefty out.
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