Bob Melvin Topps baseball card

By Amaury Pi Gonzalez

SAN FRANCISCO–When the Giants hired Gabe Kapler in 2020, they did not hire the right man. Now, they hired Bob Melvin and he is the right man.

This time Bob Melvin returns to the Giants, but as a manager. In 1986 Bob Melvin played the first of his three years with the Giants. That same 1986 when Melvin played catcher for the Giants, another manager, Dusty Baker retired as a player across the bay with the Oakland Athletics.

In total after playing with the Giants Melvin played for another seven years, a total of ten years in MLB. BoMel has also managed in: Seattle (2003-04), Arizona (2005-06), Athletics (2011-21 and San Diego (2022-23).

I first met Melvin in Seattle, when he was managing his first team, the Mariners and I was broadcasting home games for the Mariners in Spanish. He always had a kind word with yours truly, a mutual respect he always has shown with the media. Now, he is returning to the Bay Area, his original home base and were he was born.

Bob Melvin is the right man for the San Francisco Giants. After a bad 2023 where they finished next to last in the western division, this was not a surprise. Gabe Kapler had to go and they needed a new manager, and the moment the San Diego Padres gave permission to Melvin to interview with the Giants, is the moment I knew he was coming to the Bay Area again.

BoMel managed the A’s for 11 seasons and took them into six Postseasons, always a tough job with a team often with the lowest payroll in the game, he also won two of his three Manager of the Year Award with the A’s 2012 and 2018, the other time in 2007 with the Arizona Diamondbacks. In 2001 Melvin was a bench coach with the Arizona Diamondback and won a World Series ring.

Just like Dusty Baker (who also managed the Giants) during his 26 year-career as a manager. Bob Melvin is a player’s manager, Bright, affable, gets along with everybody, players as well as media wherever he has managed. Here in the Bay Area he is one the favorites all-time managers, very professional and hard working.

The Bay Area native had a difficult situation with the Padres in San Diego, a team loaded with high priced-talent, but just like in Hollywood, where movies with too many stars and egos do not produce a good film, the Padres were a disaster this year underachieving, until the last few weeks when they started winning, but it was too late. Manny Machado was one of those players that did not make the other players better, guys like Fernando Tatis Jr, and Juan Soto or Xander Bogaerts. The Padres had zero chemistry.

Some were surprised when Bob Melvin was given the opportunity to interview with the Giants, after all he had a year left in his contract in San Diego. I was not one of those, San Diego management understood his situation, one that was never comfortable for Melvin, specially with the guys in the front office. My contact in San Diego told me about this, just mid-way through this season, and people ‘in the know’ always were aware of the bad situation for BoMel in San Diego.

Giants just hired a winner, a good man and a bright manager, a strategist of character and honestly. I welcome him to the Bay Area, again.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the lead radio voice on the Oakland A’s Spanish radio network and does News and Commentary at http://www.sportradioservice.com