Farhan Zaidi enters his fourth season as the President of Baseball Operations for the Giants, joining the organization on November 6, 2018. In his third season at the helm, the team clinched the NL West and the top record in Major League Baseball, finishing the year with a 107-55 record, the best regular season in franchise history - spanning 139 regular seasons of play - surpassing the 1904 New York Giants (106-47-5).
Among the moves that Zaidi and the front office made in 2021 were signing free agent starting pitchers Kevin Gausman (2021 All-Star), Anthony DeSclafani (13 wins) and Alex Wood (3.83 ERA); making key additions to the bullpen in Jake McGee (31 saves), Dominic Leone (1.51 ERA), Jose Alvarez (2.37 ERA) and Zack Littell (2.92 ERA); trading for four-time All-Star Kris Bryant at the trade deadline; and welcoming 2021 Willie Mac Award winner LaMonte Wade Jr. (18 homers, 56 RBI) to the organization in a trade with the Twins last February. Following the season, Zaidi was named MLB’s 2021 Executive of the Year along with being named the MLB Executive of the Year by Baseball America. The organization also enjoyed success at the minor league level, with the Low-A San Jose Giants and the High-A Eugene Emeralds each winning their league championships.
In his second year with the Giants in 2020, the team finished one win away from their first playoff berth since 2016. The Giants posted the sixth-best winning percentage among all big-league teams from mid-August on and enjoyed strong campaigns from Zaidi acquisitions Alex Dickerson, Mauricio Dubón, Wilmer Flores, Darin Ruf, Donovan Solano, and Mike Yastrzemski on the offensive side and Jarlín García, Kevin Gausman, and Drew Smyly on the pitching staff.
In Zaidi’s first season with the organization in 2019, the Giants won 77 games, a 4-game improvement over 2018, and the farm system had an overall win-loss record of 415-401 (.509), the 11th-best winning percentage of all organizations, a 15-place improvement from the 2018 ranking. Five of seven Giants’ stateside affiliates reached the playoffs in 2019, with Sacramento winning the Triple-A National Championship.
Prior to joining the Giants, Zaidi spent four years as the Los Angeles Dodgers’ General Manager, joining the club in November 2014. Working alongside President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman, Zaidi helped pilot the Dodgers to four consecutive division titles while advancing to the National League Championship Series from 2016-18, and the World Series from 2017-18. The Dodgers posted one of the best seasons in club his- tory in 2017, when the team established a Los Angeles record with a MLB-best 104 wins and won the National League pennant, earning recognition from Baseball America as its Organization of the Year. Los Angeles posted the second-best winning percentage in all of baseball (.584, 379-270) during Zaidi’s four-year stint.
Zaidi began his career with the Oakland A’s, where he spent 10 seasons from 2005-2014. He began as a baseball operations analyst before being promoted to Director of Baseball Operations in 2009 and Assistant General Manager/Director of Baseball Operations in 2014. During Zaidi’s tenure with the A’s, the team reached the postseason four times, including three straight seasons from 2012-14.
Before entering baseball, Zaidi served as business development associate for Small World Media, the fantasy sports division of The Sporting News, and worked as a management consultant for the Boston Consulting Group. Zaidi earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1998. While at MIT, he was named a Burchard Scholar and elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He completed his Ph.D in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley in 2011.