Farhan Zaidi

Farhan Zaidi

• School Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of California, Berkeley

• Born November 11, 1976 in Sudbury, ON CAN

Biographical Information

Farhan Zaidi was named General Manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers on November 6, 2014 by new team President Andrew Freedman. He replaced Ned Colletti, who had ben moved to other duties within the organization when Freedman was brought on board a few weeks earlier. He stayed until the end of the 2018 season, then was hired by the San Francisco Giants as President of Baseball Operations.

Zaidi grew up a baseball fan in the Philippines, where he idolized New York Yankees first baseman Don Mattingly. He was born in Canada in a family of Pakistani descent, but moved to the Philippines at the age of 4, returning to Canada every summer. He earned an economics degree from MIT and obtained a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. He began his professional career as a management consultant, then was hired by The Sporting News to serve as a business development associate for "Small World Media", its fantasy sports division. He joined the Oakland Athletics in 2005, working in the area of statistical evaluation of players under GM Billy Beane, at a time he was making himself known for introducing new analytic methods in the field of player evaluation. He rose to the position of assistant GM and director of baseball operations.

With Los Angeles, Zaidi focused on the major league club and player acquisitions, with Freedman retaining responsibility for some of the larger business-oriented issues, and former San Diego Padres GM Josh Byrnes, who was hired on the same day as Zaidi, being responsible for amateur scouting and player development as Freedman's senior assistant. A year later, the Dodgers added another senior executive, hiring Alex Anthopoulos as Vice-President of Baseball Operations; Anthopoulos, a fellow Canadian, was fresh off earning Executive of the Year honors for his work in building the Toronto Blue Jays back into a contending team, but he stayed only briefly, being named GM of the Atlanta Braves shortly thereafter. During Zaidi's four years with the Dodgers, the team never missed the postseason and reached the World Series in both 2017 and 2018, losing both times. It was their first appearance in the Fall Classic since 1988. By any measure, it was a highly successful tenure.

On November 6, 2018, Zaidi returned to the Bay area when he was hired by the San Francisco Giants, the Dodgers' bitter rivals, to be the new President of Baseball Operations, succeeding the recently retired Brian Sabean. He was to be responsible for overall organizational strategy and was expected to quickly hire a General Manager to take care of day-to-day operations, but instead decided to keep on these duties as well. However, after the 2019 season, he decided to hire 32-year-old Scott Harris to be the team's GM, to concentrate on his duties as President. The first years of his mandate included a tremendous season in 2021 when the Giants won a team record 107 games but then made a quick exit in the postseason, and an unusual saga following the 2022 season. The Giants had decided to make a splash by signing one of the top free agents on the market, SS Carlos Correa, to a 13-year deal worth $350 million, only to see it collapse a few days later when what should have been a routine physical exam turned up an issue of concern related to Correa's ankle, putting the deal in jeopardy at the last moment. Then, before the deal could be adjusted, the New York Mets jumped into the fray, offering Correa a slightly shorter and slightly less lucrative deal - and then themselves had to put that on temporary hold as their own exam revealed the same problem. Zaidi was left having to explain his team's position in the much-reported saga, defending the Giants from allegations of having done things in an underhand manner.

Preceded by Ned Colletti

Los Angeles Dodgers General Manager 2014-2018

Succeeded by Andrew Friedman

Preceded by Bobby Evans

San Francisco Giants General Manager 2018-2019

Succeeded by Scott Harris

Further Reading

• Mark Feinsand: "Zaidi named MLB's Executive of Year for '21", mlb.com, November 9, 2021. [1]
• Maria Guardado: "Zaidi addresses 'frustrating' Correa saga", mlb.com, December 30, 2022. [2]
• Chris Haft: "Farhan Zaidi to head Giants' baseball ops: Dodgers GM accepts offer to be club's president of baseball operations", mlb.com, November 6, 2018. [3]
• Brendan Kennedy: "Canadian-born Farhan Zaidi to be named Los Angeles Dodgers GM", The Toronto Star, November 5, 2014. [4]
• Andy McCullough: "The Architect: How Dodgers GM Farhan Zaidi became one of the most coveted minds in baseball", The Los Angeles Times, March 30, 2017. [5]