As recently-fired manager Gabe Kapler interviews for the top baseball operations job in Boston, the Giants have put their search for his replacement on hold temporarily, per The Athletic’s Andrew Baggarly. While the club still hopes to have a new manager in place by the time free agency opens next month, Baggarly notes that the club is waiting for clearance to interview a final set of candidates.
Chief among those potential candidates mentioned is Padres manager Bob Melvin. Melvin, 61, is under contract with the Padres for the 2024 season, meaning that San Diego would have to grant their division rival permission to interview their manager. As unlikely as such a scenario may seem on the surface, it’s well known around baseball that Melvin and president of baseball operations A.J. Preller have a contentious relationship and have been at odds throughout much of Melvin’s tenure with the organization, a wrinkle that could make the Padres more amenable to allow Melvin to interview for the role.
While the club indicated that both Preller and Melvin would return to the Padres in their current roles for the 2024 season earlier this month, Baggarly relays that Melvin is “expected” to be open to the opportunity to interview with the Giants, if granted permission to do so by the Padres. Melvin, of course, has significant ties to the Bay Area after managing the Oakland A’s for eleven seasons, from 2011 to 2021. During his tenure with the A’s, Melvin won the AL Manager of the Year award in both 2012 and 2018, while finishing in the top four on three other occasions with the club. The A’s ultimately had a combined record of 853-764 with Melvin at the helm, an impressive feat considering the club’s consistently low payroll numbers.
Prior to his tenure in Oakland, Melvin served as manager of the Mariners from 2003-04 and managed the Diamondbacks for five seasons, from 2005-09. Melvin won NL Manager of the Year in 2007 with Arizona, making him one of just eight managers in the history of the award to win in both leagues. For his managerial career, Melvin’s record is 1517-1425, good for a winning percentage of .516.
Melvin is far from the only candidate the Giants are looking into as they search for their next manager, of course. Baggarly notes that former Giants hitting coach Donnie Ecker, who is currently the offensive coordinator for the Rangers, is another name the Giants are currently waiting on with the Rangers still in the midst of a postseason push, while Mariners bullpen and quality control coach Stephen Vogt is already known to have interviewed for the role. San Francisco has also interviewed several internal candidates, including interim manager Kai Correa and assistant coach Alyssa Nakken, who became the first known woman to interview for a big league managerial job.
Interesting
I guess the reporting from Ken Rosenthal about Bob Melvin and AJ Preller not having a good work relationship is getting more confirmation.
AJ & BoMel get along just fine. This is just another team showing just how interested in a contracted manager they are… what is SF willing to trade is the real question!
So everyone was lying to Rosenthal? Right…
One anonymous source does not a story make… Rosie is in it for clicks, we all know this.
We’ll trade ya the freshly DFA’d Gabe Kapler.
Scott- As long as Kapler is just carrying Luciano’s bags from Lindberg Field!
I really hope this is true. Bob Melvin had the ability to navigate the super hands-on Billy Beane for, a decade or whatever it was, so if AJ is just as hands-on, there shouldn’t be an issue.
I think the Giants trade offer should be equivalent to what the Padres traded to Oakland for Melvin when he was under contract there.
The Giants would give up Stripling for Melvin. I’ve got that on good authority.
Sure, but means nothing since Melvin is under contract for the 2024 season.
Giants would have to trade for Melvin.. Possible Mason Black and Landon Roupp.
Lol no one is giving up a top 100 prospect for Bob Melvin.
LOL
Black is ranked # 9 in Giants system and Roupp #15 according to mlb.com. Not 100 prospects.
that would be 100% not worth it –
2 of the top prospects for 1 year of a manager – you would be far better off just signing vogt and giving him the chance – this is about as dumb as the proposal on here a little while back when someone said to trade luciano, harrison and a prospect or 2 to seattle for haniger. before he was a FA
We’re talking about Padre fans here OK. They’re special.
If they don’t want to hire The Thrill, which would both bring some fire to the club house and bring fans to the park, BoMel or Vogt are good choices. Nobody from Kapler’s staff should be considered.
Agree
Bench coach The Thrill — I can see him do additional experience with that
Will Clark, one of my all-time favorite players, would not necessarily be a good manager.
Has the sand run out on Farhan?
Like sands through the hourglass, so are the Farhan of our lives.
Sammy Farhan still has that WSOP career to make some extra scratch if he needs it. He’s gone be just fine i reckon.
Please take him Giants. He gave up on the Padres. Stopped doing his job this year and it showed in 1 run game and extra innings decisions. The associate manager and bench coach are no the ones that are supposed to be making those decisions.
By the way, its not well known that there is a contentious relationship between Preller and Melvin. There are rumors by two people in the media. EVERY single current player and staff that was interviewed said there was no contention. ONLY former staff and players claimed that. Even though they ALL got anonymity. Why this website chooses to push that narrative is interesting when both Preller and Melvin and everyone currently on the team has said that is not the case. All the other articles simply refer to that ONE article that claimed there was contention. I guess you would rather go on rumors than what the people involved have said.
Obviously no current player is publicly going to call out their GM and manager, neither of whom they want to upset if they’re on the team.
They do often when its anonymous.
Basically what Waldo29 said. The current players and staff have zero incentive to be forthcoming about that even if it were true.
Fernando Ringworm Jr.: Just for once I’d like to see a locker room interview where a player says, “We would have won the game if it wasn’t for Smith’s throwing error ” instead of “It wasn’t him, it was all of us.”. No it wasn’t. We could all see it was Smith.
It happens every single season when its anonymous. In this case, even the former staff and players were not named. Since the NY Times took over the Athletic its reporting has gone from straight up facts to trying to be ESPN style sensationalism for clicks.
Keep on believing that. Rosenthal doesn’t publish lies.
Pads Fans: What could Melvin have done to win those 1-run games? Some things are out of the manager’s hands.
Make decisions maybe. Instead he often put in pitchers with a bad matchup or platoon split and you never, ever saw him talk to a player prior to an at bat in a close game. Other managers often come to a player to give them advice on the at bat or call a play. Not Melvin. He didn’t even make pre-game workouts mandatory. As he said, he took a hands off approach to managing the team. That is the opposite of what you want your manager to do. If the Giants want him, take him.
that would be my issue as a giants fan in taking him – the issue with kapler that doomed him was the hands off approach.
Pads Fans: I agree that the hands off approach doesn’t usually work. He probably didn’t want to ruffle the feathers of all the high-priced superstars. That’s why I like guys like Guillen. He didn’t let anybody run him.
Hire that female assistant coach, and then when the Giants do well, we can watch all the tough guys out there tell us that she had males helping her, so she doesn’t deserve the credit.. or people will say analytics did the work.
I personally would love to see it.
She will, eventually, get a manager’s job at MLB level. Probably the Giants. Just probably not this time around.
Someone has Mommy issues
Obviously no current player is publicly going to call out their GM and manager, neither of whom they want to upset if they’re on the team.
Can you say anonymous? Or is that too big of a word for you?
Hog wash…
Better get some compensation for him if they let him go. Just don’t turn into another Bochey situation for the Padres where he dominated them for years.
That’s quite the resume. Bob was well under this fans radar.
You can’t be keeping a Manager that prefers to be somewhere else. If indeed, he does prefer to be somewhere else.
It’s got to be either the Giants or Angels. Those are the only California teams he’s missed.
I agree.
The Dodgers just don’t count.
Surely Red Sox are smart enough to not offer Kapler the top operations position. Kapler’s already been fired 2 times as a manager. The relationship between Kapler & Cora would be a disaster.
I’ve got to think that Kapler is done managing after two abysmal failures? I know he won manager of the year for that one year aberration in ’21, but the fans literally ran him out of Philly and SF. Things got so bad in the clubhouse that SF fired him with three games left, which was a real F.U.; I mean, they could have just let him finish out the season, but instead, they made a statement.
I think his future in baseball is behind the scenes. Some guys, and Matt Williams is an example, are good baseball players, but bad managers.
Or, on being told, Kapler went “Ok. Disappointing, but I might as well go now and get my head around my future, and you can give Kai the experience of a game or two”
Maybe the adults (and good friends) in the room went about it without the drama of statements and F.U’s.
Scottn59c—You don’t know what you’re talking about. He was not an “abysmal failure” at either Philly or SF, both of which had serious roster issues, and he brought them both in around .500.
He’s a smart guy and probably will end up in a front office, but Kapler could come back as a manager somewhere.
@Pete: Kapler was off pounding shots with Joc while his team busied themselves playing cards and listening to Bob Marley each time they lost. Yaz told the media that the vibe in the clubhouse was “every man for himself,” and Logan Webb, the Giants’ only star, called for “big changes”, for a better culture and winning mentality. The team absolutely collapsed on Kapler’s watch (or lack thereof) in September, when it mattered the most.
He got fired in Philly because the young core there at the time regressed or failed to develop. He gets booed there every time he goes back, and he’d probably get the same reaction in SF, where he was just unceremoniously shown the door. I call that an abysmal failure. You can call it what you like.
The guy’s not dumb, and I never said he was. But he has made for a poor manager, and I believe his future isn’t going to be as a manager.
Would Melvin really want to go to the rebuilding Giants to work for a lame duck POBO? He’d be likely to get canned after one year. He’s probably better off staying in SD, where it appears that the FO still wants him, even if this past year was a rough one.
Melvin has already worked under Zaidi before when they were with the A’s
Yes, Melvin worked with Zaidi.
No, Melvin didn’t work “under” him.
My god move on from overrated Melvin. If he can’t win in San Diego no shot with crap in SF. Give someone new a shot stop this retread pattern of failure
Melvin is a platoon/matchups guy, which plays better on the Giants than it does on the Padres where most of the roster is signed to 10 year contracts with set roles.
This is very true.
If that is true, that makes his failure to do that with the Padres this season even more egregious. Take a look at the bad platoon and matchup calls they had in late and close situations and in extra innings this season. His hands off approach was a bad managing decision.
He’s overrated and a terrible manager. He’s a great players coach but his strategy is non existent.
Melvin knows being under AJ preller is a disaster. Who would want to manage the padres with that guy in charge. Peter Seidler should have done something about it
SD wants him gone anyway. They already have his replacement in mind and are most likely back channeling the hire. It’s a brilliant move by the Padres and many of us didn’t think they were capable of making brilliant moves.
Number 1 problem with both the Padres and the Giants is their personnel. Like their 40 man roster. Now the Padres actually have some talent but they’re all non-team player types. The Giants are just plain crap.
How do Bob Melvin and Gabe Kapler keep getting more managers jobs and interviews yet Ron Washington can’t get 1 more chance?
He actually won as a manager and if not for David Freese would have a would have a world series.
The game has passed him by? He’s a drug addiction? He cheated on his wife? I got more.
Wash is a great coach. But he has enough blemishes on his personal life resume to take a pass on making him your manager.
Washington blew that game. He pinch hit Endy Chavez in the bottom of the eighth for the pitcher and should have inserted him into RF for defensive purposes in the 9th. Chavez was a way better fielder than Cruz. That triple by Freese was catchable by a decent fielder. It landed at the base of the wall.
Fair or not, we know why.
Not a Padres’ fan, but if I was Preller I’d deny permission to interview Melvin. IMO lack of stability is part of the problem in SD. If Melvin leaves his replacement would be the 4th different manager over 6 consecutive seasons. Revolving doors, whether it’s the manager or FO, is counter-productive.
The Giants want Melvin AND they want to trade for him? The man has zero WS appearances and has missed the playoffs multiple times with championship caliber rosters. Go ahead Giants, do your thing.
Giants are a mess without Sabean.
Greenies do nothing more than keep the person awake. In his career Aaron was one of 5,000 players that used them.
Steroids add bulk and muscle.
Today’s players don’t come close to playing every single game during a season…let alone with minor injuries.
So 5,000 players cheated during Aaron’s era and 5,000 players cheated during Bonds’ era. Not seeing your point.
HankAaronDidGreenies — Part of the “mess” the Giants are in now is thanks to the last few years of Sabean. Have you followed the team?
Yeah what a mess. He got them 3 WS championships in 6 years. Terrible mess.
Would not be wise for Melvin to go to a situation that probably isn’t better than the current one. Better to sit out a year (if fired) and land a better gig.
Melvin said when he accepted the Padres job that 2024 would be his final season as a manager regardless of the outcome.
This would be more of what I’d want. Experience is what’s needed. Farhan also mentioned some outside opinions on coaching things. Melvin would provide a stronger voice I think in addition to Farhan.
A lot of people on the Hot Seat for this coming season. If it doesn’t work out or show improvement. Farhan’s gone. And the front office will have to be redone again.
The Giants should hire that 32 year old woman that they interviewed for the job. These mostly racist white old managers that have YEARS of experience are not better than someone who is fresh out of college and are a strong independent woman. Those Domenican
players will for sure listen to that smart independent woman that is also younger than a majority of them. Its not like these guys have been playing baseball since they were in diapers are anything. They should listen to someone who has never played a game of baseball in their life, because she is strong and independent, her being a woman is just a cherry on top. Don’t missout Giants, the right hire is right in from of your face, and if you don’t think she deserves the job then you are sexist
Dude. Go get yourself laid.
Incels like him never get laid. That is why they hate women so much.
Random question but wouldn’t not wanting to hire a woman be sexist and not racist?
Not the first post I’ve read from this kid.
He knows nothing at all about MLB or the game of baseball. Gets his philosophies from the Kardashian’s and the NY Post’s Page 6.
As with this post, always tries too hard to be relevant.
Mute.
Why would anyone think Kapler can run baseball ops??? Not even a good MLB manager… oh yeah, The Peter Principle in action… the new version… in MLB. Sorry Boston, way too many better choices out there.
BG1
Maybe because being a manager and being in the front office require different skills
The bigger thing that stood out to me was that Steven Vogt is apparently a candidate. I had assumed he was still floating around in AAA somewhere, I didn’t know he had become a coach.
Just not as liked.
Melvin has been a player favorite manager for most of his career.
He’s a terrible in game manager and it seems to increase in severity the bigger the games.
The third sentence of the second paragraph is the beginning of a story told by Nick Deeds where he adopts as fact a rumor perpetuated by one bitter writer at the SD UT Kevin Acee, despite the fact that Acee’s bs has not been verified by any other credible source. Low bar MLBTR
“The A’s ultimately had a combined record of 853-764 with Melvin at the helm, an impressive feat considering the club’s consistently low payroll numbers.”
—-
Not really. A club can absolutely build competitive teams on lower payrolls if they go in acknowledging that is their plan. It frees them from having to even consider re-signing their players once they have to pay them some real money. Trade them for low-cost talent and move on. The A’s under Beane were masters of this. The current regime? Not so much. Their trades and lower draft picks seemingly haven’t helped them all that much.
I think the Giants should trade for Pedro Grifol, but that’s just because he’s a horrible manager and he manages my favorite team. Here’s a deal – take Giants get Grifol and Tim Anderson in exchange for some unseasonably cool nights in July.
I can only hope Tim Anderson is NOT on the Giants’ radar. He would be a disaster in SF.