SAN FRANCISCO -- Since taking a job as president of baseball operations at AT&T Park, Farhan Zaidi has been going back and forth from San Francisco to Los Angeles, where he served as general manager for four years. On his first night back in the Bay Area this week, Zaidi had dinner with a man who has been a rival for the Giants for years.
Zaidi said Wednesday on KNBR that he got together with Billy Beane, who first brought him into a major league front office. Zaidi remains close with Beane and A's general manager David Forst, who was originally a candidate for Zaidi's new job but now finds himself on the other end of phone calls.
Asked about trading with the A's, Zaidi left the door open for the first real deal in three decades.
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SIGN UP HERE "It's nice to be in a situation where I do think if there's a deal that's mutually beneficial for the Giants and the A's, we'll be able to figure it out," he told KNBR. "Obviously I have a good relationship with those guys and not every baseball trade has to be one team pulling the wool over the other team's eyes. There's a lot of mutually beneficial potential deals out there. We see players differently but I think the A's and Giants have different rosters and different needs, so if there is a match to be made we'll make it.”
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There could be a match this offseason. The A's have a roster filled with young position players, mostly outfielders, with more talent on the way. The Giants have had a difficult time developing outfielders and have just four on their 40-man roster, but they do have some pitching depth to potentially deal from.
Unlike the A's, they're in the financial position to trade cheap young pitching and then go out and sign veterans.
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It's possible there's a match now, but even if there's not, expect the two sides to get together at some point. Forst said at the GM Meetings that he has always been open to dealing with the Giants. The two franchises haven't been in the same transaction since 2004, when the A's purchased Adam Pettyjohn from the Giants.
The last player-for-player trade occurred 28 years ago. The A's traded Darren Lewis and Pedro Pena to the Giants in return for Ernie Riles.
Zaidi made moves with the A's while with the Dodgers, but don't expect a Giants-Dodgers swap.
"I actually think the toughest moves are within the division," he said. "So I'm going to give Billy the nod there."