Weekend BP: Giants hire Randy Winn as VP of Player Development

The band is really getting back together.

For those hoping that the switch from Farhan Zaidi to Buster Posey would result in the San Francisco Giants tapping into a few more traditional hires, well … congratulations. Wish granted.

No, the Giants are not quite turning Michael Morse’s old vision into a reality, thank goodness.

But they are getting the band back together a little bit, and tapping into the well of established, traditional baseball minds. On Thursday the team made a somewhat surprising announcement, revealing that Randy Winn had been hired as Vice President of Player Development.

Winn is certainly a familiar face to Giants fans. The 13-year MLB veteran played for the Giants for four-and-a-half seasons, with his final year with the team coming in 2009 … when Posey made his debut and played seven games.

For the last handful of seasons, Winn has worked in a broadcast role for the team, primarily appearing on the NBC Sports Bay Area pre and post-game shows.

There is a cynical view here, and it’s not hard to identify. The Giants just gave one of the highest-ranking front office positions to someone who has minimal coaching and executive experience (per the Giants news release, Winn was a Roving Outfield and Baserunning Instructor from 2013 through 2016, a Special Assistant to the GM in 2017 and 2018, and a Pro Scout in 2019). Winn will be the direct boss of Kyle Haines, the organization’s highly-respected Senior Director of Player Development, and someone who has spent many years working in … well … player development.

This comes on the heels of the Giants losing a sizable chunk of their braintrust in moves that look a lot worse when you notice who hired those people — a list that includes, but is certainly not limited to, the Atlanta Braves quickly hiring Giants General Manager Pete Putila and Director of Analytics Michael Schwartze.

The Athletic’s Andrew Baggarly has a comforting rebuttal to some of those fears, not only pointing out that Haines has had too much on his plate, but also noting that Winn’s role is a new one. He’s not replacing an established mind in the room, just adding another voice.

Always the diplomat, Posey seems to be toeing the line so far, bringing in some old school voices while also promoting some of Zaidi’s hires, like Zack Minasian, into critical roles.

We’ll soon see how well that works.