10 early potential candidates to be the SF Giants next manager

The SF Giants fired manager Gabe Kapler, here are ten names that seem like early potential candidates.

As the SF Giants season sputters to a close, manager Gabe Kapler became a casualty of the team's disappointing year when he was fired on Friday. From the Giants' late-season swoon in the standings to a pair of pair of reports from Giants beat writers that raised questions about the team's clubhouse. Here are ten possible replacements:

1. Bob Melvin

The San Diego Padres are reportedly planning to cut over $50 million in next season's payroll. They're also having a meeting Monday to deal with the rift between general manager A.J. Preller and manager Bob Melvin. With the organizational fracture between the two so severe that one Padres employee called it a "Civil War," it wouldn't be a surprise if one or both men got fired.

If so, Melvin becomes one of the most appealing managers on the market. He's a former Giants catcher who has won Manager of the Year three times, in 2007 with the Arizona Diamondbacks and in 2012 and 2018 with the Oakland A's. Melvin is a native of Palo Alto who also attended UC Berkeley, meaning he has the kind of background the Giants look for in veteran corner outfielders at least. Plus, he worked for the A's for a decade, so he'll never be disappointed when the team doesn't sign a free agent.

A lot of early speculation in the industry that Bob Melvin would be a fit for the Giants' managerial vacancy if he parts ways with the Padres. He and Farhan know each other, of course, from their A's days together.

— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) September 29, 2023

2. Mark Hallberg

Third base coach Mark Hallberg roomed with Giants  minority owner and principal partner Buster Posey at Florida State. Posey, one of the Giants' six principal partners, just happens to be relocating to the Bay Area, where he's likely to take on a more active role with the team.

Hallberg played shortstop at Florida State and indirectly started Posey's career at catcher, as Posey moved from short to accommodate Hallberg. He's known as a good communicator, with Kapler saying this his "life experiences independent of baseball give him the perspective to be able to listen, read, react and be a good coach and teacher."

His hiring would also be a gift to SportsCenter, who could throw in no end of references to Boogie Nights, The Departed, and the Funky Bunch during Giants highlights.

3. Kai Correa

Correa has been the Giants' bench coach through all four years of the Gabe Kapler era. His rise to the major leagues was meteoric, going from University of Northern Colorado assistant coach in 2017 to Giants bench/infield coach in 2020. As a third-generation baseball coach, the 35-year-old Correa is known for "combining old-school ideas with more analytical thinking."

The knock on Correa? With years of sitting next to Kapler and even wearing similar glasses to the skipper, choosing Correa might feel like perpetutating the Kapler era rather than a fresh start.

4. Ron Wotus

Longtime Giants bench coach Wotus spent 34 years in the Giants organization, the last 32 as a third-base coach, bench coach, and special assistant. Along the way, he coached under four different big league managers, managed at Single-A, Double-A and Triple-A, winning Pacific Coast League Manager of the Year in 1997, while coaching the Giants infielders and determining defensive shifts. He also sold cheese steaks.

Wotus will be 63 years old next season, and might feel like a placeholder manager. With Zaidi going into the last year of his contract, hiring Wotus might feel like a wait-and-see move by owenrship, in case a new team president wants to choose his own field general.

5. Rodney Linares

Linares is in his fifth year with the Tampa Bay Rays and his first year as their bench coach. Before that, he managed for 12 years in the Houston Astros system, winning Manager of the Year at both Single-A and Double-A. He also coached many of the members of Houston's championship teams, like Jose Altuve, George Springer, and Never Giant Carlos Correa. Linares managed his native Dominican Republic's team at the 2023 World Baseball Classic.

Though he's only 46, Linares has been coaching since age 21 and started managing at 29. We can't speak to specifics of his managerial approach, but Tampa and Houston are both analytics-forward organizations, one of which also doesn't sign high-priced free agents! Plus he speaks Spanish, an underrated quality for a modern manager.

6. Joe Espada

The last time the Giants were looking for a manager, the three finalists were Kapler, former Rays bench coach and current Kansas City Royals manager Matt Quatraro (Linares replaced him as bench coach this year), and Joe Espada. Espada was the Astros bench coach back then, and he's still Houston's bench coach now. But now he has a World Series ring.

Espada was a third base coach for the Yankees and Marlins, as well as a special assistant to Yankees GM Brian Cashman. He's also married to the sister of Baltimore Orioles manager Brandon Hyde. If the Giants liked Espada in 2019, they should like him now, as he's only become more accomplished and experienced since then.

7. Will Venable

Venable's dad Max was an SF Giant for five years, and Venable himself was an oft-rumored Giants target during his eight seasons with the San Diego Padres. He's currently the associate manager for the Texas Rangers alongside future Hall of Famer Bruce Bochy, after two years as bench coach for the Boston Red Sox and three years coaching for the Chicago Cubs.

In college, Venable was first team All-Ivy League at Princeton in both baseball and basketball. The only thing analytics-oriented GMs love more than positional flexibility is people who went to Ivy League schools, so Venable should be a dream for Zaidi. 

8. Buster Posey

There's no indication that Posey would even want the job, but if there's one hire that could win back the Giants' jaded fanbase, it's Gerald Dempsey "Buster" Posey. In Andrew Baggarly's recent piece about the Giants' dysfunctional clubhouse, he wrote "They didn’t have a Buster Posey, who could keep everyone in line without saying a word."

Obviously there are some impediments. Posey might not be interested. The commissioner has to approve it any time a team's owner becomes the manager. Even if Posey would want the job, he might want to start in a situation where there's a little more offensive talent or a corner outfielder who is faster than him.

But the fans would love it. Whether they'd come to the ballpark to just see a manager is another question.

9. Danny Lehmann

Lehmann is the bench coach for the Los Angeles Dodgers, which automatically makes him a candidate for any role where Farhan Zaidi is hiring. He was a "Game Planning and Communications" coach for the Dodgers for four years, and honestly, I didn't know what was an actual job before two minutes ago. This year he became the Dodgers bench coach, and honestly? Enough with the old Dodgers already.

10. Matt Williams

Williams is a Giants legend with managerial experience with the Washington Nationals for two years. He's currently the bench coach for the San Diego Padres, but as the Bob Melvin administration may be ending soon, Williams could be a popular candidate.

He's fought off colon cancer and overcame a hip replacement, something that should endear him to all the Giants players who have had major surgery recently. While Giants baseball is, as they say, torture, Williams might provide the fan base with less dramatic and frustrating decisions, as he needs to protect his own health, as well as theirs.

11. Jarnathan McNamara, Portland Sea Dogs

Giants fans are going to be wishcasting Buster Posey and Will Clark as manager all October and then on November 5th it's going to be, "Here's our new manager, Jarnathan McNamara, bench coach of the Portland Sea Dogs."

— Dave (@gggiants) September 29, 2023

I for one believe Mr. McNamara is just the guy to turn this organization around.