© Michael McLoone | 2019 Jul 14
On Wednesday, the first name connected to the Giants’ general manager vacancy surfaced, via an Athletic report that Cubs assistant GM Scott Harris is a candidate.
On Thursday the second name connected to the position came to light, with Ken Rosenthal’s report that Pete Putila, Director of Player Development for the Houston Astros, is also in the hunt.
Corrected spelling! Pete Putila, #Astros farm director, is among candidates for #SFGiants’ GM vacancy, sources tell The Athletic. #Cubs assistant GM Scott Harris also among candidates. Again: Unclear where SFG are in their search, how close they are to a conclusion.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) November 7, 2019
Putila worked his way up in the Astros organization, starting as a Baseball Operations intern in 2011. Putila filled a number of different roles in minor league operations before a promotion to the role of Assistant Director of Minor League Operations in 2016. Putila served in that role for one season before being promoted again to his current position as essentially the team’s farm director.
Putila’s meteoric rise would indicate he’s the same sort of wunderkind type that Harris has been described as.
Zaidi does not envision his GM being the traditional transaction-maker; he more wants another brain with a standout skill to fit within the group structure.
Zaidi does not want to limit himself as to what that standout skill could be.
“I think by not defining it, specifically, it opens up the candidate pool,” Zaidi said at his end-of-season news conference. “Whether it’s somebody that has experience and expertise in scouting or player development or administration, whatever their strengths are. Hopefully we can complement each other and work well in increasing our overall kind of management bandwidth of the operation.”