Longtime big-league manager Dusty Baker is expected to rejoin the San Francisco Giants front office as a special assistant to president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi, according to MLB.com. An official announcement from the club is anticipated to be made later this week.
Baker, 74, retired from managing after the Houston Astros were eliminated from the postseason last October in the ALCS. While that put the bow on a 26-year career in the dugout, Baker suggested at the time he would still be up for a different role with an organization. Indeed, he even indicated that he would've kept managing for several more years were it not for what he felt was unfair scrutiny from "bloggers and tweeters."
"Every year's different," Baker said during a podcast appearance. "There was a whole bunch of criticism from 30-year-olds and bloggers and tweeters that I'm not doing this and I don't know that and I told my wife, 'You know, I'm kind of tired of this and tired of the scrutiny and if I could go manage and show up at say 6:30 for a 7 o'clock game and leave 30 minutes after the game, don't do the (pregame and postgame interviews), I could manage for another four or five years.' You know what I mean? After a while, you just get tired of answering questions."
Baker's new role should allow him to avoid the public-facing duties required by his managerial post while keeping him close to the game.
Baker has previously worked for the Giants on two different occasions. He managed the team from 1993-2002, guiding them to the 2002 National League pennant. He later worked as an advisor from 2018-19, his time between him managing the Washington Nationals and taking over the Astros following Houston's sign-stealing scandal.
