Major League Baseball’s postseason is lighting up televisions across the country this month and for the eighth time in the last nine seasons, the Giants are on their couch, not at the ballpark.
That failure was cause enough for president of baseball operations Buster Posey to fire Bob Melvin as manager and seek a new voice to lead the Giants back into the playoffs, where they have won just four games in the last 11 years.
Posey, the three-time World Series champion catcher, emphasized consistency as a goal for the team going forward during his postseason news conference last week. In that pursuit, he has reportedly sought his position mates in his first few steps looking for the next man in charge of the third-base dugout at Oracle Park.
The first name to emerge as an interviewee was Kurt Suzuki, who spoke to the Giants last week, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The former A’s catcher is a special adviser in the Angels’ front office under general manager Perry Minasian, the brother of Giants GM Zack Minasian.
Suzuki played for the A’s from 2007-2012 and again in 2013 as part of a 16-year MLB career that saw him win a World Series with the 2019 Nationals before retiring as an Angel in 2022. He doesn’t have professional coaching experience but has worked in the front office since retiring.
The Giants have also reportedly interviewed Nick Hundley, another former MLB catcher who faced San Francisco for years with the Padres (2008-2014), then ended his career with three seasons in the Bay Area – 2016-17 with the Giants and 2018 with the A’s.
Hundley, who backed up Posey in his two seasons with the Giants, has also been in a front-office role as a special assistant to Rangers general manager Chris Young over the last several years.
Two potential candidates who emerged early have been removed from the conversation: Posey indicated little interest in a reunion with his former manager, Bruce Bochy, in last week’s news conference, and Skip Schumaker, the former Marlins manager, was hired to replace Bochy in Texas.
That hiring underscores another complication of Posey’s search: The Giants are one of seven teams (along with the Nationals, Orioles, Twins, Angels, Braves and Rockies) hunting for a new manager, so they may need to move quickly to get their man.
Craig Albernaz, the Guardians’ bench coach under Stephen Vogt, has also been linked to the job, though there is no news of an interview as of Monday afternoon. Albernaz is also a former catcher, retiring from a minor-league grind career in 2014. He worked for the Giants at the tail end of Posey’s playing career, serving as the bullpen and catching coach from 2020 through 2023.
Albernaz has been a candidate for prior managerial openings with the Marlins and White Sox, and now has time to interview for jobs after Cleveland lost in the wild-card round to the Tigers.
Another former catcher Posey might have under consideration is David Ross. Ross managed the Cubs from 2020-23 after 15 seasons in the majors. Ross won two World Series rings as a player, with the Red Sox in 2013 and the Cubs in 2016.
Former Giants utilityman Mark DeRosa — who was on the 2010 World Series team, though a wrist injury ended his season in May that year — is also reportedly in the mix among MLB’s remaining managerial openings. DeRosa managed the United States in the 2023 World Baseball Classic.
The Giants would surely like to have a manager in place before the general managers’ meetings early next month as free agency begins five days after the World Series ends.