Report: SF Giants hire Bob Melvin away from Padres to be next manager
After a brief managerial search that featured interviews from both internal and external candidates, the SF Giants have finally settled on their next leader by hiring three-time manager of the year Bob Melvin to be the next skipper of the club, according to Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic.
Bob Melvin is set to become the new manager of the SF Giants
Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports
Melvin met with team officials on Monday, including key people in baseball operations and the ownership level, including executive board member Buster Posey, according to Baggarly. The team has reportedly concluded that Melvin is the right choice for the job.
Melvin will replace Gabe Kapler, who was dismissed from his duties with only three games left in the regular season on Sept. 29. He will help lead an organization at a crossroads seeking to turn the corner after two years of uninspiring play, which has left them hovering around the .500 mark.
Melvin, 61, has spent the last two seasons at the helm of the San Diego Padres. Despite their open desire to retain him in the dugout for 2024, the reported ongoing friction between Melvin and Padres general manager A.J. Preller –– combined with the club’s underachieving third-place finish in a 2023 season that produced just 82 wins –– made the decision for both parties to explore other options more unsurprising.
The Padres granted the Giants permission to formally interview with the Giants on Oct. 22, according to Baggarly Dennis Lin and of The Athletic. Melvin was under contract with San Diego for one more season at $4 million.
This isn’t the first time a Padres manager has jumped ship for San Francisco. Bruce Bochy managed 12 seasons in San Diego before accepting the same position with the Giants following the 2006 season.
Outside of his lengthy managerial career –– 2024 will be his 21st season as a major league manager –– Melvin’s connection with the Bay Area is rather extensive. He was born in Palo Alto and attended Menlo-Atherton High School on the Peninsula before attending Cañada College and later Cal Berkley. A former big league catcher, Melvin spent three seasons with the Giants in the 1980s. He managed the A’s for 11 seasons from 2011-2021.
There’s one other important connection: Melvin’s time in Oakland overlapped with Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi when the latter was a top lieutenant for Billy Beane on the brain trust side.
The outline of Melvin’s coaching staff is unknown at the moment, but he’s expected to receive mostly a clean slate with a few holdovers. According to Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle, Ryan Vogelsong and Pat Burrell are possibilities to fill positions on the staff as pitching and hitting coaches, respectively. In the past Melvin has brought his longtime coaches –– Matt Williams and Ryan Christenson –– with him on stops. They’re possibilities, too.
In the hunt for a manager, the Giants interviewed three internal candidates: bench coach Kai Correa, third base coach Mark Hallberg and assistant coach Alyssa Nakken, who became the first woman to ever receive a managerial interview. Stephen Vogt, a former Giants and A’s catcher, also interviewed and has been regarded as a favorite to land the managerial job in Cleveland, according to Jeff Passan of ESPN. Given the groups limited managerial experience, it will be interesting to see if any of them join Melvin on his SF Giants coaching staff.
