The Los Angeles Dodgers are bringing a familiar face back to the front office. The defending World Series champions have hired Farhan Zaidi as a special advisor, reports The Athletic. He will assistant owner Mark Walter with his other sports ventures in addition to helping with the Dodgers. The team has not yet announced the hire.
Zaidi, 48, spent 2019-24 as the president of baseball operations with the rival San Francisco Giants. He was fired last September and replaced by franchise icon Buster Posey. Under Zaidi, the Giants went to the postseason once (107 wins in 2021), and won 77, 81, 79, and 80 games in their other four full seasons, respectively. They also played at a 78-win pace during the shortened 2020 season.
Prior to joining the Giants, Zaidi was the Dodgers GM under POBO Andrew Friedman from 2014-18, and was instrumental in helping Los Angeles unearth hidden gems like Chris Taylor and Max Muncy. He did the same with the Giants — LaMonte Wade Jr. and Mike Yastrzemski come to mind — though not enough bigger picture moves worked out in San Francisco.
The Dodgers stockpile talent in the front office like they do on the field. Under Friedman they have a GM (Brandon Gomes), a vice president of baseball operations (Josh Byrnes), and three assistant general managers (Damon Jones, Jeffrey Kingston, and Alex Slater). Now Zaidi rejoins the Dodgers, a team he is very familiar with, as a special advisor.
Los Angeles signed Michael Conforto, Hyeseong Kim, Roki Sasaki, Tanner Scott, Blake Snell, and Kirby Yates after winning the World Series last year. They also re-signed Enrique Hernández, Teoscar Hernández, and Blake Treinen, and will likely bring back Clayton Kershaw at some point as well.
