The San Francisco Giants announced the remainder of manager Bob Melvin’s coaching staff on Tuesday. It’s a smaller, more experienced, and more conventional group than the previous staff under former manager Gabe Kapler.
It’s a coaching staff that will be asked to sign a lot more autographs, too.
The staff is set 📋 pic.twitter.com/oeAlewwu1x
— SFGiants (@SFGiants) November 15, 2023
New third base coach and former franchise star Matt Williams still has that effect on generations of Giants fans. So does 2010 World Series champion Pat Burrell, who was promoted from his role as a minor-league roving instructor to join a major-league hitting infrastructure that includes returnees Justin Viele and Pedro Guerrero. Bryan Price, who managed the Cincinnati Reds from 2014-18, was coaxed out of retirement to work as a major-league pitching coach for his fifth different organization. The San Francisco native and Cal alum will serve under Melvin just as he did with the Seattle Mariners and Arizona Diamondbacks. The Giants also promoted Triple-A Sacramento pitching coach Garvin Alston, who has been on major-league staffs with the Diamondbacks, Oakland A’s and most recently as the pitching coach with the Minnesota Twins in 2018.
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It’s quite a change from Kapler’s 13-person staff, which started on the job in 2020 with a total of 7 1/2 years of major-league coaching experience if you exclude the 23 years that Ron Wotus, the longest tenured coach in franchise history, had been in uniform. Just four of Kapler’s 13 coaches arrived with major-league playing experience.
The Giants still plan to be innovative and experimental when there’s an advantage to exploit. But now they have a little stature to go along with the science.
“All around, on the hitting end, those three guys are going to be fantastic, the pitching group’s going to be fantastic,” Melvin said on a Zoom call with reporters. “And then the guys who have been important to me and around me in my coaching career … it’s really a perfect storm in what we were trying to create.”
What are the Giants trying to create? A coaching staff that can supply players with every resource and every analytical advantage while also equipping them with the qualities that are best learned through experience at the big-league level: how to compete, how to be mentally tough, how to brush off failure without resigning yourself to it.
There were plenty of coaching positives as well under Kapler and that’s reflected in the staff continuity that will exist under Melvin. In addition to Viele and Guerrero, assistant coaches Alyssa Nakken and Taira Uematsu are expected to return in similar roles. Mark Hallberg, who developed into one of the league’s best third base coaches, will transition to first base coach. Assistant pitching coach J.P. Martinez also returns and will help to free up Price to take on broader organizational responsibilities beyond the major-league pitching staff.
The Giants did not retain former first base coach Antoan Richardson, director of hitting Dustin Lind or pitching coach Andrew Bailey, who is likely to land a job with an AL East team as he seeks to be closer to his family on the East Coast. Quality control coach Nick Ortiz’s position was eliminated. Former bullpen coach Craig Albernaz, who interviewed for the Cleveland Guardians’ managerial position that went to Stephen Vogt, was hired to serve on the Guardians’ major-league staff as a field coordinator. Former bench coach Kai Correa, who had a contract for 2024, was given permission to interview elsewhere.
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Melvin is bringing bench coach Ryan Christenson with him from the San Diego Padres. Price also worked for the Padres this past season as a senior advisor. And Williams, who also has major-league managerial experience with the Washington Nationals, has worked with Melvin almost everywhere he’s gone. Williams returned from a prostate cancer diagnosis to coach third base for the Padres this past season.
Now Williams is following Melvin home to San Francisco. The 57-year-old former slugger is rejoining the Giants organization for the first time since the winter of 1996, when a rookie GM by the name of Brian Sabean, facing a payroll squeeze, made the difficult decision to trade him to Cleveland for a package of players that included future NL MVP Jeff Kent.
“This might be my sixth or seventh team with Matt, so we have some history together,” Melvin said. “He’s always considered himself a Giant. So this was an easy one. I don’t know that there are better coaches out there than Matt Williams.”
Williams, the Giants’ first-round (third overall) draft pick in 1986, made four NL All-Star teams, won three Gold Gloves at third base and captured three Silver Slugger awards during his tenure with the club from 1987-96. He had a league-leading 43 home runs and was on pace to challenge the all-time single-season record in August 1994 when the players’ strike wiped out the remainder of the season.
Burrell, who graduated from Bellarmine Prep in San Jose, was the first player selected in the 1998 draft and hit 292 home runs over a 12-year career that ended with the Giants in 2011. He was a key contributor to the Giants in 2010 after joining them on a minor-league contract in May shortly after the Tampa Bay Rays put him on release waivers. Burrell has won many admirers in the Giants organization for his work with prospects over the past couple of seasons.
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“I’ve gotten to know Pat over the last couple years as he’s taken on an increased role in player development,” Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi said. “He obviously had a great playing career. I have been really impressed with his ability to connect with players, not just as a hitting mechanics guru but also understanding the psychological part of the game, the cheerleading aspect, respecting how hard hitting is. For Pat to bring that wealth of experience and the connections and relationships he has with our young players is going to be a boost to our hitting group.
“We also have a lot of confidence and belief in the job Justin Viele and Pedro Guerrero have done over the last few years. When we’ve been good, we’ve been really, really good. Obviously this past year was a struggle but it was not for a lack of effort or work on (their) part. I just think Pat is going to add a dynamic that they’re excited about, that the players are excited about and certainly that Pat is excited about. A different dynamic can only help us after some of the struggles last year.”
(Top photo of Matt Williams: Mark J. Rebilas / USA Today)
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