Bob Melvin is poised to become the Giants’ 18th manager since the franchise moved to San Francisco in 1958, The Athletic reported Tuesday.
Melvin, who turns 62 this weekend, is fifth among active managers in wins. He’ll enter his 21st season as a MLB manager in orange and black.
Compensation between the Giants and Padres — if there is any — is unknown at the moment. The Padres initially committed to moving forward with Melvin, but have since allowed him to depart with one year remaining on his contract.
Melvin was the Giants’ preferred candidate all along, but his status with the Padres wasn’t immediately clear. Before they got permission to interview Melvin, the club interviewed multiple internal and external candidates.
But none of Alyssa Nakken, Stephen Vogt, Mark Hallberg, Jason Varitek, Kai Correa or anyone else has the resume of Melvin, a three-time Manager of the Year.
Once San Diego granted the Giants permission to talk with Melvin last week, an intra division defection became fait accompli. A Menlo-Atherton graduate, Cal Berkeley alum, former Giants player and A’s manager, Melvin has genuine Bay Area ties.
As soon as it became apparent Melvin would be interested in leaving the Padres, he became the most logical choice for the Giants. They acted quickly, initiating a condensed interview process, per The Athletic’s Andrew Baggarly, who reported a Monday meeting involved top baseball operations and ownership officials including Buster Posey.
Melvin will be Farhan Zaidi’s third manager in San Francisco. The progressive-thinking Gabe Kapler, who led San Francisco to 107 wins in 2021, took over for Bruce Bochy in 2020 and will be replaced by another veteran manager.
Zaidi and Melvin worked together in Oakland, when the former served as assistant general manager. With the Giants, Zaidi has made a habit of signing players and hiring people he’s crossed paths with before — a trait not necessarily unique to the president of baseball operations, but a trending one nonetheless.
Zaidi has said that any manager the Giants hire will have autonomy to make his own imprint on the clubhouse and team.
Melvin began his managerial career in Seattle before moving on to Arizona, where he won his first Manager of the Year award. In Oakland, he led the Athletics to six postseasons in 11 years, adding two more Manager of the Year honors.
In his first season with the Padres, he helped guide San Diego to the NLCS despite losing star Fernando Tatis Jr. to a performance-enhancing drug suspension. Well-documented internal strife between Melvin and Padres president A.J. Preller appeared to accelerate his departure after a disappointing 2023 season; SD went 82-80 despite the third-best run differential in the NL as they floundered in both games decided by one run and extra innings contests.
In Melvin, the Giants will have a personality and stylistic change from Kapler, who was dismissed with three games left in the 2023 season.
The Giants haven’t confirmed the hiring of Melvin.