Giants name Scott Harris new GM as Farhan Zaidi makes first key appointment of offseason

The 33-year-old comes to the Giants from the Cubs organization

By Dayn Perry

Nov 10, 2019 at 3:52 pm ET • 1 min read

The San Francisco Giants have hired Scott Harris as their new general manager. The club made the announcement on Sunday. Harris, 33, has served as the Cubs' assistant GM under team president Theo Epstein and GM Jed Hoyer since early 2018. With the Giants, Harris, a Bay Area native, will work under president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi.

"I am so appreciative and honored to join the San Francisco Giants, a storied franchise with a loyal, passionate and deserving fan base," said Harris in a statement released by the team. "I'm humbled by the opportunity to help bring the next World Championship to Giants fans and to San Francisco, a city that has always held a special place in my heart. I'm excited to get to work with Farhan, our baseball operations staff and the rest of the Giants family."

Harris spent the last seven seasons with the Cubs. He earned his B.A. from UCLA and his MBA from Northwestern. As is the case with Epstein and Hoyer in Chicago, Harris and Zaidi will be the key decision-makers in the front office, with Zaidi's holding final authority.

"We're thrilled to be able to bring in an executive of Scott's caliber to help lead our Baseball Operations group," Zaidi in the same statement. "The combination of his breadth of experience, contributions towards building a championship-winning perennial contender in Chicago, and his Bay Area roots made him an ideal fit for our General Manager position and I'm looking forward to executing our vision together."

With his baseball operations staff now topped off, Zaidi can turn his attention toward hiring a manager to replace franchise icon Bruce Bochy, who stepped down after this past season. On that front, Zaidi and the Giants have reportedly narrowed down their search to three candidates: former Phillies manager Gabe Kapler, Astros bench coach Joe Espada, and Rays bench coach Matt Quartraro.

Whoever gets the job will likely be taking over a rebuilding effort, at least for the near- to mid-term. The Giants are coming off an 85-loss season and facing the almost certain loss of ace Madison Bumgarner via free agency.