The San Francisco Giants have already been one of baseball’s busiest franchises this offseason.
When the World Series ends, that might not change.
Giants’ general manager Bobby Evans joined Murph & Mac on KNBR on Tuesday morning and said that while the staff changes the club has already made are critical to pointing the franchise in the right direction, ultimately, Evans’ ability to shape and improve the team’s roster is San Francisco’s primary offseason focus.
“Our roster has got to be improve,” Evans said. “Brian (Murphy), I know you appreciate our staff changes, but ultimately our staff changes are not really the focus of our plans for 2018. It’s really got to be about our roster.”
Evans has already announced the reassignments of pitching coach Dave Righetti, bullpen coach Mark Gardner and assistant hitting coach Steve Decker, and more changes are expected to take place soon. According to Bob Nightengale of USA Today, bench coach Ron Wotus will replace Phil Nevin as the team’s third base coach, and Hensley Meulens will move from hitting coach to bench coach.
After a 64-98 finish, Evans determined that sweeping changes were needed to restructure manager Bruce Bochy’s coaching staff, and Evans told KNBR listeners that he began meeting with coaches in early September.
“I began sitting down with our coaches one by one and one-on-one in September, early September, just trying to process through even going back to August I should say, just trying to process with them where they are in their careers, where they are looking ahead, where they are looking beyond the season and ahead to their futures as well as just the club and what’s best for the team,” Evans said. “Really just wanted our staff to be apart of a process that would help me make some of these decisions that are difficult to make and especially as you’re talking about someone’s role, that’s obviously very sensitive and very personal.”
Though San Francisco’s roster will be much more difficult to change than its coaching staff, Evans indicated the Giants will be extremely active over the next two months. The Giants’ general manager laid out a timeline for how the discussions he’ll have with other team executives, as San Francisco may look to hit the trade market more often than it has in previous offseasons.
“A lot of it starts before the GM meetings but that’s really where the heavier lifting begins and then obviously we take it all the way through into free agency and then the winter meetings,” Evans said. “Really, you’ve got November, December are the heavy-lifting of player moves and right now we’re preparing and trying to get as ready as you can for when the bell rings.”
Murph asked Evans if he realized that coaching staff moves be alienate certain fans, especially because Righetti was so well-respected, and Murph compared the decisions to Brian Sabean’s trade of fan favorite Matt Williams following the 1996 offseason. Evans responded and said he thought that trading Matt Duffy was unpopular enough, but clearly, Evans feels as though the coaching staff shakeup was a necessity.
“Ultimately, I thought Matt Duffy was my Matt Williams moment, but that’s fair,” Evans said. “But I hear you and ultimately the changes are hard and they’re not easy but ultimately I have to figure out what’s strategically in our best interest long-term and in 2018 I have to figure out how to get us better and stronger and I think that having Dave Righetti more involved is going to be better than having him day-to-day grind in the pitching coach role.”
To listen to Evans’ full interview with Murph & Mac, click the podcast link below. To listen to Evans’ comments on restructuring the Giants’ roster, skip ahead to the 10:15 mark.