SF Giants’ Farhan Zaidi tries to explain team’s free agency woes

Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi hasn’t spoken too much publicly since the San Francisco Giants lost out on another top free agent, one he reportedly was “all-in” on. But he changed that Wednesday — and his first public comments of 2024 will likely only add more fuel to an increasingly aggrieved fan base’s fire.

Specifically asked about Giants chairman Greg Johnson’s October comment that the goal for team brass is to “somewhat break even,” Zaidi argued that it wasn’t a matter of cheapness, but rather about going beyond just the 26-man roster and protecting the organization’s health. His argument included a heavy dose of corporate-speak probably familiar to those in the Bay Area.

“We’re not just a baseball team that has a player payroll, we’re an organization that employs a lot of people,” Zaidi said. “And when I think about our organizational health, I’m not just thinking about our player payroll, although that’s obviously the fan-facing element of our finances that gets the most attention and it’s the most important. But I think about our employees, I think about not laying people off, think about providing benefits and resources to the people who work here, which we do a wonderful job of.”

Zaidi referenced the team’s other financial investments, like their new minor league facility in Arizona, before he continued: “I understand the reaction, and I think Greg’s kind of broader point was, we, ‘As an ownership group, we’re going to support aggressive pursuits of these free agents, as we’ve done, but we’re also looking for an overall model of economic sustainability, and that’s not just for our fans and our players but also for the people who work in this organization.’ I’m completely on the same page with him on that.”

As a private organization, the Giants have not disclosed their financial documents. Forbes reported in March that the Giants’ current organizational valuation is at $3.7 billion, a number that nearly quadrupled in less than a decade (it was $1 billion in 2014, according to Forbes). The Giants’ operating income, which refers to franchise earnings before taxes and other deductions, was $75 million, according to Forbes.

In June, the Giants also opened part of Mission Rock, a mixed-use waterfront development project that began all the way back in 2010 when the Giants won the development rights to the location. The Giants organization are wading into being landlords to bring approximately 1,200 housing units (40% of which are to be below market rate), office space, restaurants and parks that the team is hoping will become a community gathering space before and after games. With the first phase set to be fully completed this year, it is hard to square Zaidi and the organization’s “economic sustainability” argument when the area beyond McCovey Cove stands as a shining example of the Giants’ economic strength.

Kawakami pressed Zaidi specifically about the failed pursuits of top free agents — particularly the two notable losses this offseason, when both Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto signed with the Dodgers. Zaidi defended the executive team against the idea that they cheaped out when it mattered most, saying the process for top free agents is “not run like eBay auctions,” where the highest bidder will automatically win. Instead, Zaidi said, the Giants didn’t even get the chance to make a final, overwhelming offer to try to outbid their opponents.

“In many of these cases over the last few years, we really haven’t had the option or been given the opportunity to come over the top. It hasn’t been a bidding war, at the end of the day,” Zaidi said. “A lot of times, with these free agency situations, there’s bidding, there’s bidding and then the agent will tell you at some point, ‘Hey, it’s, you know, we are where we are, we know where the deals are and there’s nothing more you can do. Now it’s just in the player’s hands.’”

Zaidi emphasized that the Giants were “right there or even above” the dollar amount that Ohtani, Yamamoto and Aaron Judge last year eventually signed for elsewhere. As for Ohtani and Yamamoto: “As disappointed as we are that we didn’t get those guys, if they would have taken our billion dollars, we would have done those two deals too. So, you know, we’re in no position to complain about the unfairness or big-market team pushing dollars around. I tip my cap to them, they were able to get these two guys that a lot of teams around the league that were pursuing, including us.”

“After 2021, we were looking at two of the most difficult years we’d had, financially, in the last 20 to 30 years of the organization,” Zaidi said. “The COVID year, obviously, teams were really operating in the red. Even in 2021, it’s easy to forget now, but we started off early in the season with pretty limited attendance, and for us in the Bay Area, we were probably one of the teams that was slowest to build our fan base back up. We were still operating in a time of financial uncertainty.

“And, so, it’s easy to look back now, see where the world is now and view it as maybe a buying opportunity. But two things happened: One is the financial uncertainty coming off of a couple of really difficult years,” he said. The second excuse he offered was that during that 2021-22 offseason, the star-level free agent players were at positions where the Giants already had established veterans. Corey Seager and Marcus Semien were free agent shortstops, where the Giants already had Brandon Crawford, and Freddie Freeman was a free agent at first base with Matt Olson extremely available as a trade chip as well, but the Giants already had Brandon Belt, Zaidi explained.

“In hindsight, was that a time we should have made some changes and turned the page? It’s hard for me to go back and, knowing how great those guys were, to say we should have done anything different,” Zaidi said. “Beyond how great they were on the field, there’s this huge connection between the fan base and the guys who were part of the world championship teams. They bring a lot, they brought a lot to this organization.”

Zaidi also touched on the “San Francisco is hurting the Giants” narrative that’s been bandied about in the baseball world, including by Giants brass like Buster Posey and Zaidi himself last offseason. Zaidi said he doesn’t believe it to be true, but admitted that he’s partially responsible for the “doom loop” discourse happening at all. In response, Zaidi advocated for MLB to restrict its free agent period, which currently opens up shortly after the World Series and can last for months.

He also pointed out that geographical considerations can happen with any free agent — for example, a player who grew up on the East Coast may want to sign closer to home — and is a part of the reason why the Giants have targeted players with Bay Area ties. He also thinks the narrative being out there that San Francisco is “bad” is now something player agents are using as leverage against the Giants to get the team to cough up more money for their players.

Listen to the nearly 40-minute interview here.