NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A’s general manager David Forst, like many Bay Area baseball fans, predicted Bob Melvin’s eventual landing with the Giants this offseason.
“I read the same news that everyone else in the Bay Area does,” Forst said Tuesday at the MLB Winter Meetings. “You could kind of read the tea leaves and see it coming a little bit.”
Forst knows Melvin and Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi as well as anyone in baseball, having closely worked with both men over the course of a decade-plus in Oakland.
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Zaidi attended Cal and was compelled to work for the A’s after reading “Moneyball.” Melvin was a two-time AL Manager of the Year in Oakland after more than 10 full seasons there. Zaidi and Melvin overlapped during four seasons with the A’s.
“I think about it more on a personal level, I’m friendly with both,” Forst said. “Through a season, it’s such a grind. Something you just have to deal with, and needing people you’re comfortable with, to commiserate with. So, I think about their relationship, having each other over the course of 186 days, I’m happy that they have each other.”
Following Gabe Kapler’s firing in September, some questioned how much the Giants would continue to rely on analytics, as opposed to their coaching staff’s human instincts. But whatever the blend of lineup and decision-making process is, Zaidi and Melvin already have a head-start, since nothing in their relationship will be brand new.
“It won’t be,” Forst said. “Bob is so good at adjusting to whatever. And one of the things he did so well here was, whatever personnel he had, whatever team he had, he adjusted to that group and made it successful.”
Oakland Athletics
The Giants will count on that to continue in 2024 and beyond.
Watch Brodie Brazil's full David Forst interview from the MLB Winter Meetings