The Giants are hiring Bobby Evans and Jeff Berry as advisors to first-year president of baseball operations Buster Posey, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN (X link). They each have ties to the franchise icon. Evans was San Francisco’s general manager for a portion of Posey’s playing career, while Berry was the catcher’s longtime agent at CAA Sports.
As one would imagine, Evans has significantly more front office experience of today’s hires. He started working for San Francisco in the 1990s. Evans worked his way up the ladder amidst the Giants’ run of three World Series in five years early in the 2010s. San Francisco promoted him to general manager in April 2015, though he still served as something of the #2 decision maker behind executive vice president Brian Sabean. The Giants reassigned Evans near the end of the ’18 season, a precursor to their hiring of Farhan Zaidi the following offseason.
Evans hasn’t found himself in a ton of headlines over the past six years, though he reportedly interviewed for the Astros’ GM job on two occasions (in 2020 and ’23) and sat down with the Angels before they hired Perry Minasian in November ’20. He was floated as a candidate for the GM job in San Francisco this offseason, a position which would’ve put him only behind Posey in the front office hierarchy. The Giants went with Zack Minasian for that job, but Posey evidently values Evans’ input enough to bring him aboard in an advisory role.
Berry worked at CAA for more than two decades, becoming one of baseball’s most high-profile agents in the process. The 54-year-old stepped away from that job at the beginning of the 2024 season. (Berry spoke with Evan Drellich of the Athletic about that decision in June.) He’ll provide a bit of a different perspective as he moves to the other side of the aisle. It’s rare but not unheard of for agents to take team positions — most notably with Berry’s former CAA colleague Brodie Van Wagenen working as Mets’ general manager between 2018-20.
MLB Top 100 Commenter
Posey is bringing in guys that he knows to do the real work
Lindor's Bodyguard
What is the real work?
MLB Top 100 Commenter
Scouting, analytics, contract negotiations, analysis of free agents and trades, marketing, vendors, equipment, hiring, fiing, reassignments, emulate Anthopoulos and Elias.
GMoney28
Oh Jesus. “Let’s hire the 3 people I actually know, including the one guy who got fired 6 years ago and nobody’s wanted since.”
Great plan, dawg. I’m sure this’ll go well
spooky
It should go well, they hire a man that was instrumental in building 3 championship teams along with a man that knows the ins and outs of contract negotiations. I’m not sure where the negatives are in these hires
Pete'sView
spooky — Completely agree. These hires make a lot of sense and gird Posey well for the job ahead.
GMoney28
Let me guess – you’re over the age of 60 and hate analytics
claude raymond
Explain? What’s analytics got to do with this? And didn’t FZ get torched by posters here for overuse of analytics. 2021 success out of 6 years cost FZ his job.
amk1920
They hired Brain Sabean? Bobby Evan’s traded the best bat Giants have drafted since Posey for a few months of Andrew McCutchen
claude raymond
Trades hit and miss. Prospects for vets. Chances taken. Btw, Sabean traded Wheeler for Beltran. A miss. Nathan and Liriano for Pierzynski. A miss. He had several hits as did Evans but as long as AMK wants to use selective memory, let’s stay focused on a miss
amk1920
Bobby was the GM from 2015-2018. What great trade of his did I leave out? Evans was a train wreck at GM and the reason they hired Farhan in the first place
orangenblackattack
Hire Kevin Mitchell as VP of Barehanded Badassery, please.
goob
Next up, Sabes and Boch.
SFBay314
Insider reporting from me: I saw him at a dubs game on Friday and knew this was coming. Hahah but I did really see him at the game and started thinking
Non Roster Invitee
Evans who famously said they needed outfield power because there is none in the minors sa he traded Brian Reynolds and Kyle Crick to Pittsburgh for Andrew McCutcheon.
Pete'sView
Everyone makes mistakes. When they go on for 6 years, that’s when a team cuts bait. Which is what the Giants finally have done.
Ernie Riles
Evans as lead guy was probably inferior to Farhan But as an advisor not making final decisions, he should be fine
claude raymond
NRI, please find that quote. You won’t cuz he didn’t say that. Catch had a great year and Reynolds was a solid prospect. All the posters want to trade. Trades involve established vets (eg Cutch) and solid prospects (eg Reynolds). You take your shots. Some hit. Some miss. Get ready for coming trades. When they happen, please post a pass/fail. We’ll screenshot you and follow your prediction.
Non Roster Invitee
He was on KNBR after the trade and we remember everybody liking it.
Non Roster Invitee
And Duvall for Mike Leake.
claude raymond
pick meet choose
mab51357
Question. Is Will Clark also in an advisory role? If so, are these hires similar?
Reynaldo's
Cronyism at work.
claude raymond
Minasian 41. Winn 50. Berry 55. Old cronys? Negative ignorant posts posted to just complain. Try again Reynaldo.
Lindor's Bodyguard
Yup, Rey and GMoney duking it out for most downvotes.
Non Roster Invitee
He never wrote “old” . Cronyism comes at any age.
claude raymond
The idea of cronyism refers to unfairly giving friends jobs or promotions they’re not qualified for.
EBJ
That is exactly what is going on here. All these hires going to people who have never done the job before. Except for Evans, who we (except you, evidently) all know is awful. It’s obvious that Buster’s “vision” for the team doesn’t go past his nose.