Farhan Zaidi is out as the San Francisco Giants president of baseball operations
Farhan Zaidi has been fired as the president of baseball operations for the San Francisco Giants, the team announced today. He is being replaced by longtime Giants catcher Buster Posey.
Zaidi got his start with the Oakland A’s, rising to the position of assistant general manager before being hired by Andrew Friedman in November, 2014, to be the general manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Zaidi held that position under Friedman until after the 2018 season, when he was hired by the Giants to be their president of baseball operations.
The high point of Zaidi’s tenure with the club was in 2021, when the Giants won 107 games, but were knocked out in the NLDS by the Los Angeles Dodgers. That was the only winning season the Giants had in Zaidi’s six years at the helm, with an 81-81 record in 2022 being their next-best performance.
Bob Melvin was hired as manager of the Giants, after the team went 79-83 in 2023, and the addition of numerous free agents, along with the presence of Melvin, generated some optimism that the Giants would be back in the playoffs this year. Instead, they finished in fourth place in the division with an 80-82 record.
The naming of Posey as team president is interesting. Posey retired after the 2021 season, having spent his entire career with the Giants. Two years ago, it was announced that Posey had become a part-owner of the club, and per Andrew Baggarly, Posey was the point man in getting an extension done with third baseman Matt Chapman earlier this month. Baggarly said that the Giants’ board made the move after they “became…frustrated by the lack of immediate progress” by Zaidi on a deal.