Kurtenbach: New SF Giants manager Bob Melvin is the right man to implement Farhan Zaidi’s vision — whatever that is

The Giants have a new manager, and he’s the perfect choice to implement president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi’s vision for the team.

Whatever that vision might be these days.

Now, Bob Melvin’s bonafides shouldn’t need to be listed here. Suffice it to say the longtime A’s and former Mariners, Diamondbacks, and Padres skipper is an egoless man of high character who knows the game inside and out and wants to come home to the Bay Area. (He was raised in Atherton, helped Cal to the College World Series, played for the Giants, and was a famous patron of Piedmont restaurants.)

Any team would be lucky to have Melvin, who won manager of the year in both leagues. The Padres’ organizational dysfunction has worked to the Giants’ benefit here.

Yes, Melvin is the man for the job. He previously worked with Zaidi in Oakland and can understand and implement advanced strategy while keeping a feel for the game and maintaining good clubhouse spirits (well, in every clubhouse that didn’t feature Manny Machado).

Former Giants manager Gabe Kapler could do the first part of the job, dutifully executing what Zaidi’s numbers said to do, but he lost the clubhouse this year. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Kapler started taking his Instagram account — he fancied himself a food and beverage influencer — more seriously this season, too.

(Melvin might be baseball’s go-to guy for actual food and beverage takes, but he doesn’t use social media.)

The Giants couldn’t have done better than Melvin in this managerial search. Who else but someone trying to escape a toxic organization would be willing to enter an unstable San Francisco situation?

Zaidi is in the final year of his contract with San Francisco. Unless a secret extension has been signed in recent weeks (don’t discount the possibility), Melvin returns to the Bay with his boss in a lame-duck season.

But that has to be part of the allure for Melvin — Zaidi’s lack of a new deal gives the new manager power in the vital dynamic between the front office and coaching staff. That’s something Melvin earned in Oakland but lacked in San Diego.

This new dynamic could bring some much-needed balance to the Giants. It might even attract a big-time free agent or two.

But there’s a big question looming over this hire: What is Zaidi’s vision for the Giants’ future?

He was empowered to fire Kapler — who he hand-picked for the manager job in 2019 — and now he’s hired a man who is, in many ways, his opposite.

Is Zaidi rethinking the numbers-over-everything approach of the Kapler era?

Is feel back in?

Melvin’s hiring doesn’t really tell us — the man is adaptable. Equal parts jock and a quant, he interned at Bear Sterns during his offseason as a journeyman big-league backup catcher.

But the coaching staff around Melvin in the San Francisco dugout and back-rooms will speak volumes.

Under Kapler, the Giants’ coaching staff was massive and full of folks whose ideas took precedence over their experience. The organization wanted to be seen as cutting-edge, and in some ways, it was.

There’s nothing wrong with that — until it doesn’t work.

The same can be said for the player-first approach. If it works, that’s great, but it’ll only work for so long — eschew analytics and you’re playing in 2005. Good luck with that.

If the staff around Melvin is full of “baseball guys,” we’ll know that Zaidi is going full George Costanza: If everything he’s done as president of baseball operations has been wrong, then the opposite would have to be right.

Either way, the Giants are pliable by design and Melvin can make this team his own.

It’s been a long time since I’ve written this, but that’s a good thing for the Giants.