San Francisco Giants’ Joc Pederson celebrates his eighth inning home run against the Boston Red Sox with 3rd base coach Mark Hallberg. Friday, July 28, 2023, in San Francisco, Calif. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
The Giants’ search for a new manager appears to be heating up, with a report that team officials have met with an in-house candidate.
Mark Hallberg, the team’s third-base coach since 2022, was interviewed this week, according to Susan Slusser of the Chronicle.
Hallberg appears to be the first candidate interviewed by president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi and his staff as the Giants look to replace Gabe Kapler, who was fired with three games remaining in a disappointing 2023 season and one season remaining on his contract. The Giants faded badly down the stretch this season to miss the playoffs for the third time in Kapler’s four years as manager.
Hallberg, 37, just completed his second season as the team’s third base coach. Hallberg was a teammate of Buster Posey at Florida State and has been a coach in the organization since 2018, managing the Class A Salem-Kaiser Volcanoes in 2019. He joined Kapler’s coaching staff in 2020.
Other internal candidates are believed to be Ron Wotus, 62, the long-time Giants third base coach who has served as a special assistant the past two seasons; Kai Correa, 35, who has been the Giants’ bench coach since 2000 and was the interim manager the final weekend of the season and catching and bullpen coach Craig Albernaz. Albernaz, 40, has been with the Giants since 2000 and has been linked to Cleveland as a potential replacement for Terry Francona, who retired this week.
Many Giants fans have expressed a desire to see Posey take over as manager, but it’s unclear if that is a role the 36-year-old former star, who retired following the 2001 season and has since become part of the ownership group, would even consider at this point.
There are also plenty of intriguing potential external candidates linked to the Giants’ opening even with former A’s manager Bob Melvin remaining with the San Diego Padres and Will Venable, the son of the former Giants outfielder and a candidate when Kapler was hired in 2019, announcing this week he’ll remain on Bruce Bochy’s Rangers staff, where he just completed his first season as an associate manager.
Some of the potential targets figure to be:
- Former A’s star Stephen Vogt, 38, who joined the Mariners as a bullpen and quality control coach after his retirement as a player and has ties to Zaidi (he played for him with the A’s and the Giants)
- Rangers bench coach Donnie Ecker, 37 a Los Altos product who spent two seasons as the Giants hitting coach (including their record-breaking 107-win season in 2001) before becoming Texas’ bench coach and offensive coordinator two seasons ago. The Giants would not be able to meet with Ecker until the Rangers’ season ends, which might reach the World Series.
- Joe Espada, 48, is the third base coach with the Astros, who are playing Ecker and the Rangers for the AL pennant, the Giants also would have to wait to discuss the position. Espada and current Royals manager Matt Quatraro were the other finalists when Kapler was hired.
- Craig Counsell is the Brewers’ manager for now, but his contract expires at the end of the month and the Giants – or others – could swoop if things don’t work out in Milwaukee. Counsell, 53, just completed his ninth season with the Brewers and this season guided his team to the playoffs for the fifth time in the past six years.
