Zack Minasian, the San Francisco Giants' vice president of pro scouting, will be their next GM

We were wondering how Buster Posey would handle the open general manager position, and it looks like news started with a now-deleted post from former Mets manager and ESPN analyst Bobby Valentine –

– was confirmed by Bob Nightengale of USA Today:

Minasian has been the vice president of professional scouting for the San Francisco Giants since 2022, but prior to that he was the team's director of pro scouting after being hired by Farhan Zaidi in 2018. I wrote then:

However, his family has a long history in the majors, and Minasian's experience is somewhat similar to Dereck Rodriguez's: He and his brothers – Rudy, Perry and Calvin – grew up in the clubhouse with big leaguers thanks to their father, Zack Sr., who is the was the clubhouse manager Texas Rangers. Be Dad was Tommy Lasorda's best friend. That is a gigantic A mistake for Zack Jr., but this offseason was all about swallowing the bitter pill of Dodgerdom to make the Giants better.

His father was such good friends with Tommy Lasorda that he wrote a memoir about him and called him Zack's godfather. This 2021 post by Bob Nightengale makes it clear that the Giants' Zack is not a Jr. and his father is not a Sr., as the Giants' middle name is Zack Thomas… (gulp) in honor of Tommy Lasorda.

► Zack, 36, is the San Francisco Giants' second-year pro scouting director, much to the chagrin of his late godfather Tom Lasorda and his wife Jo, who affectionately called him “Benedict Arnold.”

Uh… well… um… um… you see… well… okay, let's move on.

Buster Posey wanted a GM with a scouting background and Minasian is more than qualified for the position. Being a true baseball player only adds to the resume, which was already impressive considering he became the youngest scouting director in baseball history at 27 years with the Brewers. He has a solid public persona that I believe will be a positive, active energy for media hits. A nice contrast to Buster Posey and a somewhat dramatic departure from Farhan Zaidi and Gabe Kapler.

The height also gives the Giants some stability during a transition, which I think is valuable.

Dropping the man who led the reconstruction risks having to start all over again, almost leading to further setbacks, delays and frustrations. Given this promotion, the retention of JP Martinez as pitching coach, and Buster Posey's own commitment to breaking into the job, the team seems committed to building on what's already there rather than starting over. That's smart, especially because the Giants have a lot of work to do, even if the end of the rebuild isn't yet in sight.