The San Francisco Giants introduced former San Diego Padres skipper and Bay Area native Bob Melvin as the team’s new manager on Wednesday.
Melvin, a former Giants player and also a former Oakland Athletics manager, succeeds Gabe Kapler following Kapler’s firing with three games to go in the regular season. The Giants fizzled out at the end of the year following a strong start to the season; they were still in the playoff hunt before going 9-18 in the month of September.
Melvin will take over from bench coach Kai Correa, who took over as interim manager when Kapler was fired.
The Palo Alto native and former Menlo Park resident has been a big-league manager since 2003 when he became manager for the Seattle Mariners. He has also managed the Arizona Diamondbacks before a decade-long stint as Oakland’s manager, beginning in 2011. Melvin’s 853 wins the A’s were second-most in team history, training Hall of Fame manager Connie Mack.
At a press conference on Wednesday, Melvin said he grew up “an absolute crazy Bay Area sports fan” and said his ascension to the manager role with the Giants was “surreal.” “I was walking over here today, thinking, talk about full circle,” said Melvin. “And you know, for me, this isn’t even something as a kid you can even dream of. To be able to not only play here, manage here, go to Cal, manage the A’s. It’s not something you even dream about. So at some point in time, this will sink in.”
In his first season as Padres manager last year, Melvin led San Diego to the National League Championship Series. However, the Padres struggled in 2023 after coming into the season as one of the favorites to reach the World Series, finishing with an 82-80 record and missing the playoffs.
Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi said Melvin was a natural fit for the team.
“We just view Bob as the perfect manager and perfect leader for this team and this organization right now,” said Zaidi. “Hearing from players how passionate they are about playing for him, about his leadership, about his care for them, you know. There are so many players who played for Bob who to this day will say he’s the best manager they ever played for, and that carried so much weight for us in this process.”
The 62-year-old Melvin becomes the second Padres manager to be hired away by the Giants in the last two decades. In 2006, the Giants signed Bruce Bochy from San Diego; Bochy later went on to deliver three World Series championships to the Giants organization.
“I thank the San Diego Padres for being accommodating and letting us pursue the perfect candidate and for giving Bob the opportunity to come home,” said Zaidi.
Melvin has a career 51.6% winning percentage with a 16-23 postseason record and has garnered a reputation for getting the most out of his rosters.
During Wednesday’s press conference, Giants chairman Greg Johnson announced that Melvin’s contract would run through 2026 and that Zaidi would also be extended through 2026 “in principle.”
Terms of Melvin’s and Zaidi’s contracts were not disclosed.
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