Billy Beane knows a thing or two about fielding a successful MLB team, and the former Oakland Athletics general manager recently went to bat for Farhan Zaidi as the Giants president of baseball operations faces increased scrutiny.
"I'm obviously a little biased," Beane told KNBR's "Murph & Markus" show Wednesday. "I adore Farhan; he's brilliant ... there's no funnier, warmer, more enjoyable person to be around, and so in that sense -- and listen, I've worked with this guy. This guy is really, really smart, very smart. He cares so much. ... When Farhan left [the A's] to [work with] the [Los Angeles] Dodgers, I think my kids cried. I mean, that's how much they adored [him]. My wife felt the same way."
Zaidi began his career in baseball after reading Michael Lewis' book "Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game" while attending UC Berkeley. The story of how Beane used sabermetrics to build a competitive, yet cost effective, team inspired Zaidi to apply for a job with the A's, where he worked under the Oakland executive from 2011 to 2014, eventually earning the role of assistant GM before departing for Los Angeles.
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Now, in his seventh season with San Francisco's front office, Zaidi understands team ownership is evaluating his performance after yet another underwhelming season. The Giants have made the MLB playoffs just once under Zaidi in 2021, when the team won a franchise-record 107 regular-season games and then lost to the Dodgers in the NLDS.
"Here's what I would say: If that man's a free agent [this offseason], there will be no shortage of people who would love to have him with them," Beane continued. "You're asking the wrong person ... because I've been with this guy. He's brilliant. He's a wonderful human being, and so am I biased? Maybe. But also, objectively, I've seen this guy work. ...
"[The Dodgers] are kind of doing some of the same things that Farhan gets criticized for, so it seems to be working for the Dodgers over a 10-year period. And so the idea of doing this or doing that, you don't like it, but the fact is that your biggest competitor down south has done it brilliantly, and [Zaidi] was a major part of what was going on down there."
The Giants play their penultimate game of the 2024 MLB season Saturday against the St. Louis Cardinals after dropping Game 1 of the series at Oracle Park. They'll have to win out if they want to finish the campaign with a .500 record -- which would mark just the third time they have finished .500 or better since Zaidi arrived in 2018.
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As fans await a turnaround for the once-dynastic Giants in San Francisco, it's evident Beane believes his old friend Zaidi is more than up for the challenge.
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