SAN FRANCISCO -- Hensley Meulens and Ron Wotus, two longtime Giants coaches, find themselves in an odd situation.
Both will be part of the first round of interviews for the team's manager vacancy, president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi said Tuesday. But both could also find themselves looking for entirely new organizations in six weeks or so.
Zaidi met with all the coaches for one-on-one exit interviews and informed them that any staffing decisions will be put on hold until a new manager is in place. That man, whether Meulens or Wotus or somebody from the outside, will decide who stays.
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"It'll kind of be at the new manager's discretion to pick up those conversations once he's in place," Zaidi said.
Bochy's coaches were told that they're free to "pursue other opportunities in the interim." Zaidi noted that this search might go on a while, and he doesn't want holdovers to be waiting around as other vacancies are filled.
The entire staff had contracts that went through the 2019 season and there was uncertainty throughout the season about whether any would be back. It is common for a new manager to keep a couple of people in place, but for the most part, new staffs are brought in with a new leader, and much of the decision-making is based on previous relationships.
The concern Giants coaches have is that so many of them have been in San Francisco for so long that they don't have as many of those existing relationships elsewhere. An external choice for manager might not really know a Meulens or Wotus or Jose Alguacil, etc.
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Those three, along with Shawon Dunston, are the longest-tenured coaches. Alonzo Powell and Curt Young are relatively new and could be in the most precarious position since a new manager generally hand-picks his hitting and pitching coaches. Assistant hitting Rick Schu and bullpen coach Matt Herges are also in limbo, although Herges is considered by many in the organization as the most likely to stay, given his previous connection with Zaidi as a Dodgers minor league coach.
The Giants already have let go of eight pro scouts and several minor league coaches. Zaidi said department heads are in the process of deciding whether there will be changes on the amateur scouting side and elsewhere in the front office.