San Francisco Giants: Everything you need to know about new general manager Scott Harris

The San Francisco Giants have hired former Chicago Cubs front office executive Scott Harris to be the team’s new general manager. Here is everything you need to know about him.

The San Francisco Giants have officially named former Chicago Cubs director of baseball operations Scott Harris as the team’s newest general manager after a year-long search.

Farhan Zaidi has seemingly found his guy as the president of baseball operations helped introduce Harris to the media and fans alike on Monday. But who is Harris and what exactly will his role with the team be?

Perhaps the first part of that question will be easier to delineate.

More from San Francisco Giants

• Thank you SF Giants for a fun, wild, surprising 2020 season
• SF Giants lose in heartbreaking fashion and miss 2020 MLB playoffs
• SF Giants: Mike Yastrzemski named 2020 Willie Mac Award recipient
• SF Giants: Chadwick Tromp placed on IL with shoulder strain
• SF Giants: Tuesday’s game against the Seattle Mariners postponed

Harris, much like Zaidi, doesn’t come from a background as a player as he never even played at the high school level. Instead, Harris was born in Redwood City, California and attended Menlo School before traveling south to UCLA.

At UCLA, the Bay Area native earned his bachelor’s degree in economics before attending Columbia Business School in New York. He would follow that up with a position working for the MLB in the commissioner’s office from 2010 to 2012 making for an impressive first job in the industry.

Harris would parlay that success and continue to climb up the ladder by accepting a position as the Cubs’ director of baseball operations in 2012. Mind you, Harris was 25-years-old when he accepted that position — an unbelievable feat for a front office executive.

Under the tutelage of Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer — two of the most highly-regarded baseball minds in the entire sport — Harris was able to grow and develop as an executive essentially serving as the Cubs third-in-command.

All the while, Epstein and other executives only had great things to say about the young decision-maker.

In a 2018 interview with The Athletic’s Sahadev Sharma, Epstein had the following to say about Harris.

"“He’s really bright and a really hard worker. He has a strong, well-rounded executive background. But you wouldn’t know by hanging around him. He’s not one of these guys telling you where he got his degree, that he went to business school, that he worked in the commissioner’s office, that he knows the rules better than you. He’s really easy to get along with, people like being around him and he just makes the group better by being a great team player.”"

Two things that have seemingly followed Harris throughout his career to this point have been his unbelievable work ethic and incredible likeability. And in his press conference, Zaidi spoke about how Harris comes from a culture of collaboration in Chicago.

That collaboration will be incredibly important in San Francisco without a clear role for the team’s new general manager. Zaidi will still be the Giants’ No. 1 decision-maker, but he and Harris will work together in all areas to run the organization.

More from Golden Gate Sports

• Raiders: Rookie stock report following Week 3 performance
• 49ers sign new long snapper amidst a flurry of roster moves
• Oakland Athletics win Game 2 of Wild Card round with late-inning drama
• 49ers: George Kittle and Deebo Samuel cleared to return to practice
• 49ers expected to place DE Dee Ford on injured reserve

Expect Harris to be heavily involved in pretty much all fields whether it’s player development, international scouting, team transactions, or really anything in the decision-making process.

What’s perhaps most encouraging is the front office that Harris is coming over from.

The Cubs have long been seen as one of the premier examples of innovation in the baseball world. They were among the first organizations to invest in modern technology and one of the earliest adapters to the world of analytics.

Harris and Zaidi give the Giants a pair of young, innovative baseball minds who each found success in incredibly successful organizations prior to joining the team. And as an added bonus, they each have previous ties to the Bay Area.

The San Francisco Giants still have plenty of work to do, but it appears as though they have the right people to lead the organization into a new era.