Greg Johnson’s annual Q & A with the Chronicle took place in the postseason for the first time, better to discuss the big news — Tony Vitello’s hiring — but it comes with some new info, too.
The San Francisco Giants chairman indicated the team is formalizing an advisory position for three-time World Series champion manager Bruce Bochy. This comes as no surprise; when Bochy stepped back from the Rangers after the season, the consensus was that he’d find a role with Giants awaiting him.
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Now, with MLB newbie Vitello named the team’s manager, Bochy’s return carries even more significance beyond the symbolism — Vitello now will have two of San Francisco’s greatest managers, Bochy and Dusty Baker, available as mentors, and Buster Posey, entering his second year as the Giants’ top baseball executive, will have his own former manager as a resource.
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So we’ll open things up with that portion of the Chronicle’s chat with Johnson before getting into his thoughts on Vitello and the process of hiring him, plus Johnson’s assessment of the past season.
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Susan Slusser: What do you see as the learning curve for Posey? Do you feel as if there’s even more of a ceiling for him to grow as an executive?
Greg Johnson: We all know he’s got EQ (emotional quotient), he’s got competitive fire, but at the end of the day, he’s still learning on the job. What he does is he surrounds himself with people that have that experience, like Jeff Berry helping with all negotiations with players. Buster is learning that. Having Dusty Baker in there to be a sounding board and we haven’t announced it yet, but having Bochy back in the fold is something we plan on, having him as an advisor like Dusty We’re working on that right now.
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I think that helps Tony, too. If you’ve got two of the greatest managers ever as sounding boards, that certainly puts you in a different position.
Buster is realistic about what he does well and when he doesn’t have experience in something, he brings in that expertise to help him. That’s what’s given us the confidence in having him in there, he’s not going to just make decisions without discussions and he’s accountable. It’s going to be very rare that the ownership group overrides him on something, but he listens and will change his mind on things.
At the end of the day, if he is very firm, like he was with Tony with us — because, let’s face it, Tony was a fairly expensive deal to do for a person unproven at this level. Buster was very persuasive that Tony was the perfect complement for what the team needs, and a complement to Buster’s style, both highly competitive, one more reserved, and one not so reserved.
SS: What was your initial reaction when Buster brought up Vitello?
GJ: He kind of came and said, ‘I want you to take a look. Think about this. This is kind of an out-of-the-box situation.’ And I quickly Googled him and came back to Buster the next week and said, ‘Well, wait a minute, this guy is making more than most managers right now, and has a pretty secure situation atTennessee. Why would he want to take a job in MLB that’s much riskier for your tenure? ’ I felt like, ‘Boy, it’s going to be hard to pull him out of that.’ But Buster kept pushing and I called some people who are part of the Tennessee alumni group and the feedback was incredible. The more I read and heard about him, I felt like, ‘Yeah, let’s go for it. Let’s do it.’
SS: What are the concern levels with Vitello’s lack of pro experience?
GJ: We look at somebody and say, ‘Well, he hasn’t been in the majors.’ but at 47 he’s coached more than most people. He’s been more successful than most people. You could hire a 33-year-old manager, which could be great, but that’s not a lot of experience for that role, even though that person’s been successful where they’ve been to date. To me, whatever business you’re in, if you have shown that you can build organizations and lead organizations over multiple situations like Tony has, I think that that puts you in a very different light than somebody who’s been in the majors as a bench coach, has been a third-base coach, and it’s their time to be a manager. I like the person who’s run things and been successful in multiple places, I think that’s a safe bet. We talked and he had all the right answers, from my perspective. But again, it’s Buster making the call, and I felt comfortable with it.
It’s kind of crazy to even think that it’s that out of the box. We’re not hiring a basketball coach. He’s 47 and he’s lived and breathed baseball his whole life.
SS: Yeah, it’s not a Ted Lasso situation. And Tony is such a good talker, it seems like he could be a media darling. What were your impressions?
GJ: I wanted feedback too, but it’s funny, Duane Kuiper’s line after the press conference was, ‘I’ve spent my life around a lot of B.S.ers,and I was expecting maybe this guy to be one, but, boy, he was not.’
Tony said, ‘My goal is to do the best I can do.’ That’s what you want to hear out of people, not, ‘I’m going to win the World Series and beat the Dodgers.’ I mean, come on, we hope we do that, but you can’t make that goal because you don’t control everything.
SS: Speaking of L.A. and with the World Series just wrapping up, how do you compete with them? Can you?
GJ: I think you saw this year, despite the juggernaut lineup and everybody thinking they were going to win some record amount of games, the season’s long and things change. They had some tough stretches with injuries, hitting, starting pitching.
Our goal is to not only just get in the playoffs but to win the division. I think we can do that. It’s a matter of getting a lift out of your farm system, and hopefully we can get some of that in the next year ahead, but you’re not going to outspend the Dodgers, put it that way.
SS: Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto were the dominant players. How do you ensure that the Giants make inroads into the market for Japanese players?
GJ: Zack Minasian has spent a lot of time there in his career. He met with those players when they were there. Obviously L.A. has done a great job building those ties to Japan, and the more players you have in the locker room speaking Japanese, probably the easier it’s going to be to draw more talent. We’re just going to keep pressing it, we’re not going to concede that territory to anybody. It is important to have those players come in, so I think that has to be a priority for us to make sure we’re doing everything we can to attract that talent to the Giants. But it’s difficult when L.A. has built that presence and there are 10 million people watching Dodger games in Japan.
SS: How do you see the team’s needs this offseason?
GJ: The obvious one is starting pitching. We’re in need of one, possibly two. We’ve got a lot of options in the organization and hopefully somebody emerges, but I’m not sure you can count on that at this point, and it’d be nice for some of those younger arms to get another year of experience in Triple-A as well. As Buster has said, I think we’re hesitant about any pitcher on long-term deals when we have a young core sitting there. So it’s a question of what is available in the marketplace and what we can do on a shorter term basis. The other obvious one is relief pitching; you’re just better off having a lot of arms that you can draw from, kind of who’s hot. That’s just not an area where historically it pans out paying a lot. But I’m speaking out of school these are questions for Buster and Zack.
SS: Could you see bringing Justin Verlander back, or a similarly decorated starter in the same age range? Vitello obviously has a great relationship with Max Scherzer.
GJ: Certainly they’re options. Scherzer and Verlander are just complete studs, but it’s always risky at that age counting on them in your starting rotation for a year.
SS: Where do you see things going with the budget?
GJ: There’s always flexibility. Right now, it’s been reported we’re at somewhere around $185 million, in that vicinity. We do know we’ve got to address some of the issues to strengthen the team, and that’s our plan. I know you (media) guys don’t believe it, but we don’t have a (specific budget) number we kind of look at. We look at all the needs and how best to address them and depending on the player, the opportunity, we will raise that number. It really is dependent on whether it’s short term, long term. You don’t want to have six or seven players locked up together in the $25 million range for seven, eight years; you’re going to be in trouble down the road and not have that flexibility. Certainly we have a lot less flexibility because of the investments we’ve made in the current infield group and Jung Hoo Lee.
SS: Are you comfortable exceeding the luxury tax threshold?
GJ: We’re comfortable doing that if it’s the right situation.
SS: The CBA is ending after this next season. How much of a concern is that and is it a consideration with the budget?
GJ: That’s kind of a separate issue that we’re not really thinking about in terms of free agency. I’m hopeful that we will not have a work stoppage. That’s about all I can say on that topic because it just doesn’t serve anyone to speculate on where things are going. I’ll leave it to Major League Baseball to talk about it.
SS: Also next season we see the introduction of the ABS challenge system for balls and strikes. You’re on the Rules Committee, what are your thoughts?
GJ: I think the way they’re approaching it, working with the players on not making it 100 percent of the time, is the right approach, and an extra challenge in extra innings. and we’ll continue to tune it. The umpires do an amazing job. It’s 98 miles an hour, moving 16 inches, on a corner, I don’t even know how you do that, but having the technology to reverse missed calls at key points in a game I think will be great. It also adds to the fan engagement side. When you use your challenge, it makes it kind of interesting, and it won’t delay things, because it’ll be quick feedback on the screen, like tennis, and that’ll be kind of fun as well. And I think it’ll create more consistency around the strike zones.
SS: Obviously, no one in the organization was happy with the end results, finishing 81-81, but one thing that jumped out to everyone around the team was the fan support. Even during some pretty grim stretches, the ballpark was mostly full and the atmosphere was positive.
GJ: I was there some of those stretches and some games were against teams that you wouldn’t think would draw a crowd on a Tuesday, Wednesday. It was like, ‘Wow, it’s nice to see the ballpark pretty full on a weeknight.’
The fans have been incredible. We were up about 10 percent in attendance.Part of it is that the city is back. The city’s vibrant, the city’s going. You had a period where maybe people didn’t go to a game for a while. Now they’re back in the city and feeling like, ‘Hey, let’s go back out to the Giants.’
I also think the lineup has some personalities and if fans can identify with the players, it goes a long way, they’re much more engaged. It’s powerful knowing you have core players who are there for a while. And I think the Posey factor is a positive for the fans, having him at the help and supporting what he’s doing.
SS: How would you grade Posey’s work in his first year on the job?
GJ: If something’s not sitting right with him, he’s going to make a move. He’s not afraid to fail. You could make safe moves — for example, instead of Tony, you could get someone who’s been around the league for awhile, that’s a move people won’t criticize. Obviously, Tony’s a riskier one, but Buster is confident enough to do that. He’s going to move quickly. Those are the kinds of people you need if you want change.
This is a lineup that we feel like could go deep in the playoffs and hopefully put us in a position where we could win a World Series. I don’t think that’s just talk. I think that’s what Buster wants. That’s what we want. And I think these kind of perceived riskier moves are just consistent with Buster’s competitive fire in getting back to where the Giants need to be.
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