A familiar face is returning to the Dodgers’ front office.
On Monday, the club brought back former general manager Farhan Zaidi in a special advisor role, according to a person with knowledge of the situation who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly. In his new position, Zaidi will also assist team owner and chairman Mark Walter in the businessman’s other sports interests.
Zaidi, 48, formerly served as the team’s first general manager under president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman from 2015 to 2018. During that time, he helped build Dodgers rosters that won four division titles and two National League pennants, the club’s first since 1988; and aided in the acquisition of several unexpected stars, such as Max Muncy and Chris Taylor.
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After the 2018 season, Zaidi was hired by the San Francisco Giants to become their president of baseball operations. Three years later, after the Giants won 107 games to outlast the Dodgers for the 2021 NL West championship, Zaidi was named MLB’s Executive of the Year, overseeing what looked like a potential powerhouse in the making in the Bay Area.
However, the Giants never returned to the playoffs in Zaidi’s tenure, going .500 or worse in each of the last three years while repeatedly missing out on several sweepstakes for superstar players, including as one of three runners-up to the Dodgers for Shohei Ohtani last winter.
After the Giants stumbled to an 80-82 record this year, missing a wild-card playoff spot by nine games, the franchise replaced Zaidi with longtime former catcher Buster Posey at the helm of its baseball operations department. Shortly after, as Zaidi told Foul Territory in December, he began discussing new job opportunities with the Dodgers and other teams. All along, a reunion with his former club seemed logical.
While the Dodgers have since filled Zaidi’s void at GM with Brandon Gomes, Zaidi will take on a new role in Los Angeles now that includes closer coordination with Walter — who is also the owner of the Los Angeles Sparks, the Professional Women’s Hockey League and was part of Dodger co-owner Todd Boehly’s purchase of Premier League soccer club Chelsea in 2022.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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