Giants manager Bob Melvin assesses his first season: ‘Probably the hardest year I’ve had’ (2024)

SAN DIEGO — When Bob Melvin buttoned up a Giants jersey at his introductory press conference last October, he acknowledged that there were moments when he had to convince himself that all of this was really happening.

He grew up a Giants fan in Menlo Park. He’d ride his bicycle past Willie Mays’ house hoping to catch a glimpse of the Say Hey Kid, whom he idolized. His identification with the Giants only grew stronger during a major-league career that included three seasons in San Francisco, and in his two decades as a major-league manager with four franchises, he’d gaze into the home dugout at the Giants’ waterfront ballpark and wonder what it’d feel like to call it his office. When the San Diego Padres allowed Melvin to escape a turbulent environment after last season and the Giants hired him to replace manager Gabe Kapler, it was all a waking dream.

“This is everything I’ve dreamed of coming in here,” Melvin said on Saturday. “And so for it not to go well — and my expectation was that it would go well — makes it probably the hardest year I’ve had.”

Dreams can take unexpected and dark turns. The Giants are 71-73. They are distantly in fourth place in the NL West. They have a payroll that blew past the luxury tax threshold ($237 million) for the first time since 2017. They aren’t quite drawing dead in the NL wild-card standings, but by this point, they’d have to get struck by lightning while simultaneously holding the winning Powerball numbers to squeeze in. A better goal over the final three weeks would be to finish above .500, learn about youngsters, and set a standard for tighter play after a summer when so many threads came loose.

Adding to the heartbreak: the Giants mourned Mays’ death in June just two days before celebrating his legacy in a game at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Ala. They also lost fellow Hall of Famer and franchise great Orlando Cepeda a few weeks later. It hasn’t been the season that Melvin envisioned. And yes, he acknowledged that the failures and the losing record have stolen some of his joy.

It’s also the second consecutive season in which Melvin has managed a massive disappointment after a ridiculously loaded Padres roster failed to make the playoffs last year. So Melvin said he understands the growing undercurrent of criticism. He also acknowledged that, as a first-year manager learning his personnel and adapting back to an analytics-driven front office, there have been times when he didn’t trust his gut while making game-level decisions like he should have.

Melvin pledged to bring accountability to the clubhouse when he was hired. In a wide-ranging interview on Saturday morning, he made it clear that he must be held accountable, too. Yet he also expressed optimism that the Giants aren’t as far away as the standings might suggest. And he expressed confidence that important building blocks are being put into place. Below is our conversation, lightly edited for clarity.

This is your 21st season as a major-league manager and although it’s the same job from year to year, every season is unique unto itself. What would you view as some of the more unique challenges you’ve had to face this season?

Well, first of all, when you come into a new organization, it feels like that first year is kind of a challenge because you’re not only getting to know the players, the incumbents, the one you brought in, but it’s the front office and support staff. It’s everybody, because you’re never going to come into a situation that is a complete overhaul. So that takes up a lot of time. It’s not always comfortable, especially when there’s a lot of people from the remaining staff. So you want to make those people feel comfortable. And want everybody to know, “Look, I’m not in coming in here to change everything. I’m coming in here to acclimate to things. And, in my position, make some changes for the better.”

My first year in Seattle was really hard because I was a first-year manager. And we won 93 games. My first year in San Diego was tough because I had come from Oakland, where I’d been for 11 years, and it was a completely different deal there. And we went to the NLCS. So you get inspired by coming to a new place. Now, here it was completely different, because this is San Francisco. This is the signature team in the Bay Area. This is everything I’ve dreamed of coming in here. And so for it not to go well — and my expectation was that it would go well — makes it probably the hardest year I’ve had.

Last year was hard in San Diego because of what we accomplished the year before. But this year was more personal because it’s San Francisco. So in that respect, this has been a very difficult year for me. Now, it’s not over. There’s still a lot to accomplish with some of the younger players and the guys that we have leading into next year. But there are nights when it’s very uncomfortable for me.

Such a large part of your job is to evaluate player performance. When you step back and look at the season, how would you evaluate your own performance?

I always step back and look. Every night. It’s probably one of my detriments: I do that every night and I feel like everything that went wrong, I have a big part of the responsibility. Should I have started a runner 3-2 before a guy hit into a double play? Was that pitching change right?

A lot of criticism for managers is bullpen usage, right? So, you know, you just have to be right. Even if everything lines up, all your analytics, everything in your matchup sheet, if you’re wrong, you’re still wrong. The bullpen is the hardest part to evaluate when you go back and look at things. In our case here, was I too late to make a change in the closer role? What makes it so hard is because at the time, you always feel like you’re making the right move. You try to make every decision you make a good decision. They’re not all going to go right. But the ones that stand out are when the bullpen gives up a lead, sure, and those are the ones you have to wear the hardest.

You’ve heard it said that the people in this game who stick around are the ones who never stop learning. What have you learned this year?

Oh, everywhere. Every year. When I went from from Oakland to San Diego, for example: Oakland was very analytic-based. San Diego was not, and maybe, at least in the second year (with the Padres), I didn’t push the running game and bunting and some of the traditional stuff that maybe I’d done in Arizona. Maybe I didn’t do it enough in Oakland, either, but it worked for our model there. And coming to San Francisco, I learned from San Diego that you have to be able to do some stuff like that. And maybe here, again, the Giants were more analytic-based. So maybe I got caught in the middle a little bit with what my feelings were and how to do things, as opposed to what the right thing might be to do in a particular organization (given) what the model was.

It sounds like you’re describing situations when you’d make a game-level decision and not feel totally all-in on it.

Correct. And I’m not blaming it on anything or anyone else. It’s on me. If there’s a move that all the numbers say is the right thing to do, but your gut is telling you, “Maybe not today,” and you still make that (analytics-driven) move, that’s when you really kick yourself later.

What are areas of this club you’re most proud of?

Well, I think the development of some of the younger guys here. They’re going to be so important to this organization going forward, because everywhere I’ve been, really good teams have a flavor of youth and are really driven by people from within that organization. I always liken it to being a freshman, then JV, now you’re varsity, right?

So here, in Oakland, wherever I was, when guys come up to the big leagues (from the system), there’s a little bit more pride in the name on the front (of the jersey). Free agents, I don’t want to say it’s a bit more mercenary. But when guys are coming up from within the organization, that’s really important and it resonates in a clubhouse. And then you mix and match with the right people around that. But it always starts with that base, and I think we’re developing a base here on the pitching end and on the position player end, as well.

What are areas of this club that have been most disappointing?

The record? And the record is the manager’s record. Our record is my record, the way I look at it, and it’s not good enough. The long-term look comes more in the offseason, when you have time to step back. When you’re in it day to day, it’s more about, “What didn’t I do today? What didn’t I do yesterday? What am I going to do today?” Those other evaluations come when the season’s over.

Is there something that stands out as a decision or a strategy or a course that the team took this season that you wish you could take back?

Maybe pinch hitting a little too much instead of staying a little bit more faithful in some of the guys. Like, you look at (Michael) Conforto’s numbers against lefties. Now, there are certain matchups that are just hard on lefties, period. But there are times that I pinch hit for him and I went back and thought, “Man, he’s got a .900 OPS against lefties. Why did I do that? I need to show more faith in guys like that.” And I sometimes have a tough time finding a balance about, “Did I leave a starter out there too long, or did I go to the bullpen too early?” And I think there’s been a little bit of that this year.

How much of that is a function of learning your personnel as a first-year manager here?

There’s some of that. But I always say that the first couple of months, you kind of figure out what you have, and then you have a better idea what to do a little bit later.

You’ve accomplished a lot in your career. You’ve won the Manager the Year award three times. But this year and last year in San Diego, you’ve managed high-profile teams with payrolls exceeding the luxury tax threshold that significantly underachieved. And as you know, this is always a “what have you done for me lately” business. How do you respond to the overall personal criticism from those who would draw a link between you and those two disappointing seasons?

Probably fair. But I also had a big payroll the first year I was there (in San Diego) and we went to the NLCS. So the second year in San Diego was a big disappointment, and a lot transpired because of that. So you’re right, we did have a big payroll this year (in San Francisco), and it’s not good enough.

One of the challenges you faced every year in Oakland was to win and develop at the same time while competing with younger players in key roles. How would you describe your approach to winning while developing younger players? Have you had to do more of that this year than you anticipated?

At the beginning, sure. But as a coach, you get very inspired by it. Now, the reasons for it aren’t good this year because we went in with a little bit more of a veteran team and didn’t expect a (Heliot) Ramos to be here or a (Tyler) Fitzgerald to be here or leaning on a (Hayden) Birdsong in the rotation. But it’s very inspiring because developing guys … that’s why coaches get into this, seeing the fruits of the labor.

How much can the Matt Chapman extension help cement the culture that you want to create here?

In concert with the younger players from the system, you need core, veteran guys who are stabilizing forces and leaders. And Logan Webb and Matt Chapman are two huge pieces for us going forward. With them and with the younger guys, we’re not far away. As horrible as this feels right now — and I feel it every night, and especially now since … I don’t want to say it’s a spiral, but we’re probably playing our worst baseball right now — you have to step back and see the future.

These types of moves really encourage and inspire you to look at next year and say, “You know what? We’re not many pieces (off) and we’re not that far away.” We can be really good as quickly as next year, in my opinion.

The Giants lead the major leagues in innings thrown by rookie pitchers. How would you evaluate what you’ve seen from Kyle Harrison, Birdsong and others? How does the rotation set up for next year?

The experience that these guys are getting right now, even getting punched in the face a little, has been good. You have to embrace that and you have to push through it. It’s, “Hey, look, this game isn’t very easy. But instead of backing off when you’re going through fire, you don’t stop. You keep going through it. Breathe into it as opposed to feeling paralyzed by it.”

Harry is going to be a really good pitcher. This year, it was all over the place for him, really good and bad and in between. He’s going to be better for it knowing that he’s pushed through some things when he could have backed off and said, “Hey, I need a break.” And he never did, until just recently here, when we needed to (place him on the injured list with shoulder inflammation).

So I’m proud of the way he went about it. The kid’s a real competitor. Never used anything as an excuse. Never used innings as an excuse. If he got hit around, he admitted it. “I got hit around.” That’s what you want to see out of younger players.

Have the young pitchers set decent enough benchmarks in innings to the point where they won’t be a concern next season?

Well, I do (think so), and that’s why we want to push to these levels now and not back off. You want to set it up this year so there won’t be too many restrictions next year. When you look at the innings that we had to cover out of the bullpen this year, this wasn’t what we forecasted going in. We didn’t want to do that.

One could argue that late May and June was the most challenging stretch of the season because you were operating with Logan Webb, a flagging Jordan Hicks, and bullpen games, more or less, to fill the rest of the rotation. One also could argue that you did your best managerial work over that stretch because the team came out of it still in contention and within fair sight of .500. But since I just mentioned Hicks, how do you evaluate his transition from reliever to the rotation, and how do you envision him factoring into next season?

This was a real learning experience for him. You go at it with a certain mindset as a reliever who had to go into “pace yourself” mode. Early in the season, it worked really well for him, but he had some (extra velocity) when he needed it. When we got a little further along, it wasn’t there when he needed it. So it was time to take a break. But based on where he got to this year, we can get to another level with him.

What does this team need that it does not currently have?

We’re starting to see it: a little bit more athleticism. Especially at home, we have to play really good defense and not beat ourselves. And we have to create different ways to score, whether it’s bunting a guy over, over whether it’s a hit-and-run, whether it’s stealing some bases, whether it’s creating some havoc, especially in our place. In low-scoring games, just don’t beat yourself and find a way to scratch a run late, have a good bullpen that can shut it down. Going forward, I think that’s what we need.

And in terms of personnel? Positional needs? Roster construction?

I wouldn’t want to get specific because I wouldn’t want to say anything that might sound like an indictment of who’s here. But I have real opinions about that.

What areas of on-field play need to be tightened up?

You really feel defense. We started out playing pretty good defense, but right now it’s not what we expect. And as coaches, we feel that there’s a personality to defense. There’s a tenacity and an understanding that you create on the other side. Like, “These guys aren’t going to beat themselves.” And we’ve done some things defensively here that have not felt good. As a manager, I feel I’m accountable for that.

Let’s talk about the stolen-base differential. Your players on the position side are who they are, and early efforts to put runners in motion resulted in running into a lot of outs. But you have the fewest stolen bases in the major leagues (61) and the most allowed (139). What happened there?

It was my fault we didn’t push it enough early on slide steps and making guys more aware of the running game. And then it got to a point where we just absolutely had to do it. And then there were times where we gave up some homers because of it, maybe not making a good pitch on a breaking ball or something like that. But it’s something we had to get better at. And we have here recently, But it started out awful, and as a former catcher, that hits me right in the heart. For sure, it’s going to be (a focus going forward).

What disappointing areas are you going to spend the most time diagnosing after the season? The inability to hit with runners in scoring position? Not scoring enough early runs against opposing starters?

All those things, right? We try to place an emphasis on situational hitting in batting practice but it’s tough to do with a 60 mph arm (throwing batting practice). Maybe make it a little more difficult on them. Early in spring training, get a machine out there pumping tough pitches forcing them to do those type of things. Making guys realize it’s not just one swing all the time, choking it up and putting it in play. There’s more than one swing. I think that’s something we need to emphasize a little bit, too.

One reason the Giants were such a tough matchup in their World Series years, especially in the postseason, was that they had so many dangerous hitters with adjustable-bat swings: Pablo Sandoval, Hunter Pence, even Buster Posey. There was no safe way to pitch them.

And they didn’t beat themselves with defense.

Right. You already touched on the closer role and making a change with sending Camilo Doval to the minors for two weeks. Could that move have been made earlier?

Maybe. But I had a lot of faith in him. You had to look at what he accomplished in the past. It was never the prettiest thing in the world, but he always seemed to get that strikeout and I always had a feeling he was going to do it. He was an All-Star the year before. I wanted to show a lot of faith in him. Yeah, a little late.

Is there an avenue for Doval to reclaim the closer role next season?

Yep.

This is the second consecutive tailspin for Patrick Bailey in the second half. He had a .784 OPS prior to the All-Star break and a .343 OPS after it. What are you seeing?

It gets in your head sometimes, right? There are very few two-way catchers. He has the ability to be both. Workload is huge but I don’t think it was a workload issue this year. I just think once you get down that road (with a hitting slump), it gets in your head a little bit and gets in there a little bit deep. But he’s a terrific kid. He’s a terrific catcher. He cares about what he’s doing, and he’s going to push through this at some point in time.

Perhaps the defining moment for the Giants this season didn’t happen on the field. It was losing Willie Mays and then Orlando Cepeda, and then, of course, the game at Rickwood Field. It’s been a difficult time for the organization, hasn’t it?

That game in Chicago (when Mays’ death was announced), I had to remind myself to focus multiple, multiple times during that game. If you were part of that era, and watched them growing up, it hit you really hard. It hit the whole city hard. I mean, there have been passings in places that I’ve been, but it’s never been felt like this. Now, that’s no excuse for the play. It should actually even inspire you a little more.

Taking this job was a dream come true for you. Has any part of the way the year has gone stolen away any of your joy?

Oh a ton. A ton. Now, you have to put things into perspective. I’ve never lived in the city before. Where I live in San Francisco is wonderful. It’s a fantastic experience. And there are days that I go home and it doesn’t feel like it should. When we lost that Sunday game against Miami (on Sept. 1), I went back home and I saw all the people leaving the ballpark, all the black and orange walking down the Embarcadero, and it killed me. I went home and sat there and just looked out and watched this and thought, “We’re so responsible for this.” You know? And I feel that every day here.

(Top photo: John Hefti / USA Today)