The San Francisco Giants have hired Bob Melvin as their next manager.
Still it does not seem that long ago that he was managing the Oakland Athletics. Yet the 2024 MLB season will mark year three since he was allowed to leave the organization without any compensation from the San Diego Padres.
Melvin spent 11 seasons managing the A’s where he became a fan favorite. So it was disappointing for many that he left, yet it marked the first move of many during the past two seasons to reduce payroll and trade their best players, which gave owner John Fisher what he wanted, the lowest payroll in MLB for 2023.
All these moves were made, so Fisher can move the team to Las Vegas. When it comes Melvin, he simply is a traitor. He now joins a franchise that has done nothing to help the A’s remain in Oakland.
Interestingly enough when the situation was reversed in the early 90s, Walter Haas, the A’s owner at the time handed over territorial rights for free to help keep the Giants in San Francisco.
Also, the jokes on the Giants as well. Melvin is a mediocre to good manager. He has never found any success in the playoffs and his A’s teams mostly battled for a Wild Card spot only to lose in disappointing fashion.
Even worse for Giants fans now, Melvin and the Padres had arguably the best roster in MLB for 2023 and only managed to win 82 games. He really is not much of an improvement over the departed Gabe Kapler.
Then again Melvin the traitor is the perfect fit for the Giants, as his tenure will likely be marred by either disappointing win totals or postseason disappointments.