Farhan Zaidi Makes Larry Baer Proud as Giants and Dodgers Battle for NL West Title

SF Giants CEO and President, Larry Baer, has good reason to gloat over his decision to hire Farhan Zaidi as President of Baseball Operations at Oracle Park back in 2018, when Zaidi was the General Manager for the L.A. Dodgers. Holding tight to the best record in Major League Baseball, the Giants are experiencing one of the most glorious moments in their history, and particularly, in their lifelong rivalry against the Dodgers, as Zaidi leads the team to the top of their National League.

It’s quite likely that Baer’s decision to hire Zaidi as “top boss” – and all of the strategic moves that this brough about – was the secret to the Giants’ dramatic comeback during the 2021 season.

Zaidi joined the Giants after four years as the Los Angeles Dodgers’ General Manager. Under his leadership, the Dodgers won four consecutive division titles and advanced to the National League Championship Series during the last three years of his tenure, and to the World Series during his last two seasons. The Dodgers also posted the second-best winning percentage in all of baseball (.584, 379-270) during that four-year period with Zaidi as General Manager.

When Zaidi came on board back then, he didn’t offer bold promises or predictions, nor did he promise to make an immediate splash. What he did do was to propose a general and somewhat vague philosophy in his first press conference that basically committed to consistently making smart baseball decisions and incremental transactions, one after another. These decisions have been all about filling his roster with undervalued players that other teams have discarded and giving them opportunities to grow into talented players.

Zaidi provided opportunities for these players that other teams weren’t giving them, extending that same visionary philosophy to the pitching staff, which resulted in the acquisition of such talent as Kevin Gausman and Anthony DeSclafani, who each got one-year contracts to re-enter free agency and prove their worth.

It was Zaidi’s philosophy and vision that brought about such new blood as Alex Dickerson, Mike Yastrzemski and LaMonte Wade Jr. to Oracle Park this season. It was this thinking that led Zaidi and his front-office staff to bring Darin Ruf and Donovan Solano on board as non-roster invitees, along with Mike Tauchman, who stole an essential walk-off home run that helped win a season series against the Giants’ lifelong archrivals. All of these players have been instrumental in helping the Giants rise from the ashes after a dreary 4-season losing streak prior to the pandemic.

Baer, urged by Zaidi, also brought in Gabe Kapler, along with his coaching team, a move that put the team’s star veterans Buster Posey, Brandon Crawford, and Brandon Belt on showcase and turned them into prime-time players once again, linking this season’s team to the roster of the championship title days. Crawford could well turn out to be the year’s MVP and is being rewarded with a new two-year contract that’ll keep him on the roster through the 2023 season.

Of course, Zaidi’s prolific background actually extends back beyond the Dodgers. His first job in Major League Baseball was with the Oakland A’s, which means he’s an offshoot of the Billy Beane family tree, which is an offshoot of the Sandy Alderson family tree, which in turn is an offshoot of the Bill James family tree.

This means that Zaidi has had major influences in his thinking from which to develop his own strategies and direction, and he often outsmarts his rivals thanks to his analytics-based strategies. Zaidi took what he learned while working in Oakland and Los Angeles and brough it to fruition in his role as San Francisco’s team boss.

Zaidi’s combined strategies have been an absolute formula for unstoppable success, boosting the morale of Giants players, staff, and fans. Even with only three-fifths of the rotation available and only relief pitchers on the field this weekend, the Giants are still front and center in the race for the division title.

Now it remains to be seen whether they can keep that up for four more weeks. Baer, Kapler, and Zaidi are optimistic, and the players keep feeding that optimism.

Meanwhile, the Dodgers are keeping their eyes open, as they’re well aware of the stakes — the winner of the NL West championship will move on to a best-of-five Division Series with a chance at the World Series, while the runner-up will be forced to play a do-or-die wild-card game.

The rivalry between the Giants and the Dodgers is now at a boiling point, and that could very well continue for several years. Zaidi has all the tools required to keep it this way: he has the wherewithal, the bandwidth, and the farm system in place to make this rivalry ongoing, and to keep it exciting the entire time. In fact, he made key roster moves during 9 of the past 10 days, including this past Saturday’s game, and his daily transactions provide on-the-spot flexibility and agility.

The only disadvantage for Giants fans is that Zaidi has not only applied his keen instincts and scouting talent to building the Giants’ roster, but he also did that for the Dodgers’ roster, which is still clearly marked by his influence. For example, the Dodgers’ newest star players, Max Muncy and Chris Taylor, were both brought in by Zaidi before his departure from the club.

The historic rivalry between the Giants and the Dodgers is best enjoyed when both teams are doing well, when each team is at once challenging and inspiring the other team to do better, and that’s actually what’s happening this season as the Giants make a sweeping comeback after a series of lackluster seasons.

To keep things exciting for fans in both Northern and Southern California, this trend seems quite likely to continue. Zaidi is showing no signs of slowing down his game, which means the Giants can expect to continue their winning streak at the top of their game. And the Dodgers are also looking pretty fly after winning eight consecutive division titles as well as the 2020 World Series.