Scott Harris hired as New Giants GM
Another off-season domino fell on Sunday as the San Francisco Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi made a big move. The organization has finally filled its vacant general manager position with the addition of former Chicago Cubs assistant GM Scott Harris.
First noted by Jeff Passan of ESPN, the Giants checked off a big item on their to-do list with the hire. That leaves Farhan Zaidi with one more big decision in replacing managing great Bruce Bochy.
A Strong Decision
Prior to Harris’s experience in the GM world with the Cubs, he spent two years as MLB’s Coordinator of Major League Operations. Harris was a UCLA graduate who earned his MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management.
Harris was a part of the puzzle that helped piece a World Series championship team together for Chicago in 2016. He joined the team back in 2012 and advanced to the rank of assistant general manager prior to the 2018 campaign. For several years now, Harris has been looked at as a potential candidate for a number of different ball clubs around the league.
A Challenge Ahead
Harris will undoubtedly look to help tackle the biggest question mark of all for the Giants, how to bring the team back to dominance. The Giants are not too far removed from winning three World Series titles in a span of five years from 2010-2014. That adds on to the championship pedigree surrounding the franchise that now holds 23 pennant crowns and eight World Series titles.
Every team goes through ebbs and flows across various seasons but lately, it has been a hard fall from grace for the Giants. Each of the last three seasons, in particular, the Giants have failed to reach 80 wins. Since the year 2000, the team has ended the season with their top player earning a mark of 5.0 or better in WAR (Wins Above Replacement). In the last three seasons, however, no player has produced a WAR mark above 3.9.
On an offensive note, while strikeouts haven’t been a huge problem (just 22.3 percent since 2017), power-hitting certainly has. Over the course of the last three seasons, the Giants have ranked dead last in home runs (428), isolated power (.138), and overall slugging percentage (.380). That ranks behind current anemic offenses like Miami and Detroit.
On the mound, things haven’t been so great either as the starting staff ranks sixth-worth since 2017 in WAR at 21.7. In 2019 alone, the Giants starting staff gave up a league seventh-worst average of 1.62 home runs allowed per nine innings.
Contract Challenges
One more big challenge facing Harris and the San Francisco Giants will be escaping from hefty contracts. They are currently set to have the 11th-highest payroll in baseball come the 2020 season per Spotrac and will deal with over $43 million being allocated to starting pitching. The price for their infield players alone will cost the Giants $46.6 million in 2020 and $48.9 million in 2021.
At least through 2021, the Giants will have to find some way around paying out at least $112 million in average annual value. Many of those players are coming off of one of their worst statistical years to date.
Ultimately while there lies a significant mound of challenges ahead, the addition of Harris will undoubtedly spur the Giants back to where they’ve been. Back to what fans have grown accustomed to in not just being competitive, but fighting for World Series titles.
