Wearing a suit with no tie and carrying a black duffle bag, Bob Melvin walked onto the diamond at San Francisco’s Oracle Park on Wednesday morning. Moments later, he pulled a Giants jersey over his broad shoulders while seated between President of Baseball Operations Farhan Zaidi and Chairman Greg Johnson.
Just like that, the 61-year-old Bay Area native was home.
“This is kind of a surreal moment for me,” Melvin said during a news conference to announce he has been named the club’s manager, replacing Gabe Kapler. “I grew up around here as everybody knows, a absolutely crazy Bay Area sports fan. Whether it was Cal and Stanford, whether it was the 49ers and the Raiders, whether it was the Giants and the A’s, the Warriors — I was into it all. I was walking over here today: Talk about full circle.”
Giants manager Bob Melvin answers questions following Wednesday’s introductory news conference.
(Eric Risberg / Associated Press)
Sure.
But hardly a perfect circle.
The offramp back to San Francisco was rocky at the end of his second year as manager of the Padres. A $256 million team massively underperformed its expectations, one year after finishing one stop shy of the World Series. Reported tensions between Melvin and Padres President of Baseball Operations A.J. Preller grew to the point that some deemed their relationship “unfixable” — even as Padres Chairman Peter Seidler made it known that he preferred both men to remain in their roles for the 2024 season.
Melvin is now off to San Francisco. The Padres did not receive compensation for allowing their manager out of the last year of his contract. Melvin received a three-year deal from the Giants that will run through the 2026 season; Zaidi, the GM, will receive an extension of the same length.
“Look, I don’t want to get too much into the San Diego situation other than the fact that I really enjoyed my time there,” Melvin said. “Some things transpired last year in a difficult year for the team with high expectations. I think there was a narrative at the end that probably wasn’t going to go away with me being on my last year of my contract, and I think as far as that organization goes, it’s probably not fair if that narrative continued through next year. So all things considered, this opportunity came about and for all the reasons I stated, this feels like the right one for me.
“I very much enjoyed my time in San Diego. It just seemed like with a lot of things that were popping up there, it just was time to move on.”
A photo of Giants manager Bob Melvin is displayed on the center field scoreboard at Oracle Park before his introductory news conference in San Francisco.
(Eric Risberg / Associated Press)
Word broke Sunday that the Padres had granted Melvin permission to interview with San Francisco. Melvin’s was hired on Tuesday morning. The Giants announced Wednesday’s introductory press conference at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, 13 hours before Melvin appeared in front of reporters at Oracle Park.
Only a few questions lobbed in his or Farhan Zaidi’s direction focused on the drama that led to his exit from San Diego, just a year removed from leading the Padres into the NLCS. Melvin addressed his Padres status during late-season media scrums, but did not appear on the end-of-the-season news conference with Padres President of Baseball Operations A.J. Preller, citing a travel conflict. The next day, Melvin told the Union-Tribune that he was “very much looking forward” to returning in 2024.
“Bob’s track record as a manager in many ways speaks for itself,” said Zaidi, who teamed with Melvin at his previous stop in Oakland. “He’s won manager of the year three times. He’s been to the playoffs many times. He took the Padres to the NLCS in 2022. As we went through this process, we spoke to a bunch of different candidates. … I think when you’re going through this process, you’re looking at the totality of someone’s career — their leadership, their characteristics. You’re not looking at recency bias or what happened over one season, whether it was 2023 or some other season.
“Again, I’ve been around Bob, seeing how he runs a clubhouse, seeing how he runs a team and I would put his leadership and management skills up against anybody in the game.”
