San Francisco Giants chairman Greg Johnson confirmed the organization has "agreed in principle" on an extension with president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi through the 2026 MLB season.
SF Giants on NBCS @NBCSGiantsGiants chairman Greg Johnson announces the team has agreed "in principle" to a contract extension for Farhan Zaidi <a href="">
That matches the length of Bob Melvin's contract after he was officially hired as San Francisco's next manager.
Some fans may have wondered whether Zaidi's long-term future in the Bay Area was in a bit of jeopardy. He joined the Giants in November 2018, and they have enjoyed just one winning season and one playoff appearance since then.
The Athletic's Andrew Baggarly made a blunt assessment on Sept. 8 when he wrote, "You can't say that the Farhan Zaidi tenure has been successful thus far."
"The Giants are not a good team," he posited. "They are not in a strong organizational standing. They certainly are not one player away in 2024. (Sorry, Shohei dreamers.) And this is a business where, even on the South Side of Chicago (given a decade or two), GMs and managers are held to account."
Baggarly later added he was "not sure there's any way to sell a multiyear extension for Zaidi to the fan base."
Yet, that's exactly where the Giants find themselves.
Realistically, though, it would've been tough to move forward with Zaidi as a lame duck effectively working to save his job.
Managerial candidates, especially ones as experienced as Melvin, probably wanted some sort of assurance about the structure of the front office beyond 2024. Maybe it's a case of throwing good money after bad, but allowing Zaidi to retool the roster this offseason with a reasonable chance he's gone in a year wouldn't have made a ton of sense, either.
San Francisco was at a point where it either needed to commit to Zaidi or put someone else in charge. Ownership is obviously choosing the former.
