San Francisco Giants: Top 7 candidates to replace Bruce Bochy

6. Eric Chavez

While there will always be interest in former managers looking to make their return to a big league coaching assignment, there’s an equal chance that the Giants opt to go after someone with limited managerial experience.

Enter California-born Eric Chavez — familiar to Oakland Athletics fans for his six consecutive Gold Gloves manning third base. He was an accomplished player that played for the cross-town rivals for the majority of his career.

But Chavez shouldn’t be considered simply because he was a good player and is familiar with the Bay Area. He’s been earning his stripes since his playing days, serving as special assistant to Brian Cashman and Billy Eppler with the New York Yankees.

When Eppler became general manager of the Los Angeles Angels, Chavez followed as special assistant. In 2018, Chavez became the manager of the Angels Triple-A affiliate Salt Lake Bees.

He’s quietly been a name thrown around for several different managerial jobs since then. At just 41, Chavez has plenty of time to get his footing into the managerial role and is surely capable of serving as a defensive-minded leader.

The sample size is admittedly very limited, but if there’s a guy that might be worth at least taking a look at, it would be Eric Chavez.

Chavez and Zaidi have a connection through the Oakland A’s — they were both with the organization in their respective roles from 2005 until 2010. Chavez would play his final year with Oakland before Zaidi was promoted to assistant general manager to Billy Beane.

Chavez would check plenty of boxes for Zaidi in terms of his managerial search. He’d be young and still impressionable in terms of managerial style. He’d likely be willing to work with a modern, analytically-driven front office, and he’d be very well respected in the clubhouse.

There are obvious risks that come with taking a gamble on such a young manager, but the looseness that comes with the closest thing to a modern player-manager has helped recent world championship squads.

It would be a fairly safe bet that a couple different front offices will be interested in and even reach out to Chavez for some coaching job. But the Giants might be able to offer him a chance to find his footing as a manager.

Plus, it’s hard to deny a prospective talent that’s worked alongside some of the top executives in the game. Zaidi would be another notch in that belt.