Just a few short weeks after San Francisco Giants GM Scott Harris left for the Detroit Tigers, the Giants have found his replacement. Pete Putila, the former assistant GM of the Houston Astros, has been hired as the SF Giants' new general manager. Putila is largely credited with helping to establish the Astros' immensely successful player development pipeline. His hiring by the Giants signals their intention to dramatically improve their development capabilities moving forward.
The Giants have not done a great job of successfully developing their own minor league players in the four seasons under President of Baseball Operations Farhan Zaidi. Several of their top draft picks have stalled for various reasons, and the major league team hasn't enjoyed many breakout performances from young players in recent seasons. Logan Webb is one exception, as is Camilo Doval, but the Giants haven't had a lot of young talent impact the team and it has been a problem. Putila should be able to put the San Francisco Giants in the best position possible to improve in this area.
There is, of course, Putila's association to the 2017-18 Astros teams that were known to be invovled in illegal sign stealing. But Putila was the Astros' director of player development at the time, a role that was very likely not at all involved in the in-game sign-stealing efforts that originated out of the dugout during games. Zaidi says he checked with MLB to see whether Putila had been involved in the league's investigation into the Astros, and the league confirmed that he wasn't even interviewed, meaning there was zero reason to suspect he had any involvement. The Astros' scheme is often falsely considered an organization-wide effort, but in reality it was a fairly crude operation that originated with on-field personnel.
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The best daily San Francisco Giants podcast. Whether the Giants are winning championships or retooling for another title run, Locked On Giants host Ben Kaspick—a lifelong Giants fan and former contributor for RotoGraphs and Beyond the Box Score—breaks down every game, rumor, and transaction in a way that's data-driven and rational but also simple, passionate, and accessible to all.
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