San Francisco Giants: Top 7 candidates to replace Bruce Bochy
3. Bob Geren
There have been various reports suggesting that Farhan Zaidi had significant interest in Bob Geren.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise. Geren’s stint as manager of the Oakland A’s fell right in the middle of Zaidi’s various front office roles with the organization. The two could have conceivably established a rapport.
His five-year managerial career wasn’t exactly pretty. He was able to accumulate a 334-376 record, with only a single season where he was able to lead his team to a .500 record.
Still, he’s been linked to the San Francisco Giants. And he at least has been in the presence of recent success as a bench coach under Dave Roberts with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Geren has seemed to thrive in his role in Los Angeles, and it would feel good for Giants fans to potentially steal another piece from LA while strengthening their team once again.
It seems that the speculation of Bob Geren being a candidate for the San Francisco Giants’ manager’s job has happened as a result of Geren’s connections with Zaidi. He was previously good friends with Beane before he got his shot in Oakland.
Would this be the same?
Zaidi has only ever hired one skipper as a general manager. If Roberts is any indication of what to expect from Zaidi’s second hire, then perhaps Geren wouldn’t be far off.
It doesn’t seem unreasonable that Geren will get a shot at being a manager again for the 2020 season, given the recent success that the Los Angeles Dodgers have had since his hiring as their bench coach. The franchise seems like it’s expecting his departure.
The reason that Geren is on this list isn’t because he would necessarily be a great manager with the Giants, but because we already know that he’s one of the names on that list. He shouldn’t be, but he’s there.
He lacks credible success at any level as a manager and has looked like a buffoon multiple times in the past with his old-school — and often ridiculous — stylings. It’s landed him heavy criticisms in several markets.
This would certainly be the antithesis to a flashy move for a managerial hiring in San Francisco, but with his connection to Zaidi, it’s hard to outright deny.
A possible factor in all of this is that Geren has expressed that his move from coaching with the New York Mets to the Los Angeles Dodgers was in order to be closer to his family in southern California.
San Francisco wouldn’t be too far away, but there’s always a possibility that he’d be more interested in a role with the San Diego Padres.