SF Giants need ‘star power,’ according to new manager Bob Melvin

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Growing up on the Peninsula, Bob Melvin watched the twilight of Willie Mays and Willie McCovey’s careers with the Giants. He played against Barry Bonds, then managed against him and Buster Posey.

“San Francisco’s a star-power town,” the Giants’ new manager said Tuesday during his mandatory media session at the MLB Winter Meetings. “So I think we need some players, one, two or whatever, that the fans really identify with. Whether it was the Willie Mays days, the Barry Bonds days (or) Buster Posey, star power is important to San Francisco.”

Few would know better than Melvin, whose duties now are recruiting the next high-profile player to the Bay Area.

There’s no shortage of candidates in a top-heavy free-agent market, and the Giants are believed to be in on many of the top players. They are in a holding pattern as they await decisions from Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, their top two priorities, but have been connected to Blake Snell, Cody Bellinger and Matt Chapman, too.

Melvin is no stranger to star power, having managed Juan Soto, Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr. on the San Diego Padres the past two seasons. But he is learning that managing the San Francisco Giants is a little different than the team across the Bay, where he spent the previous 11 years.

“I think the fact that we are shopping at the top of the market is pretty cool,” said Melvin, who has been a part of the club’s meetings with free agents, even though he wasn’t at liberty to say with whom. “It’s no secret that we’re players at the top of the market. So, a little different from what I’m used to in the past. But it’s exciting, so we’ll see where it plays out.”

Besides evaluating his roster, hiring a coaching staff and trips back and forth between the San Francisco and the Giants’ facilities in Arizona, Melvin’s primary responsibility since being hired to replace Gabe Kapler in October has been as a recruiter, an asset Farhan Zaidi commended on the first day of the meetings.

“He has about as good of a reputation with players as any manager in the game, and it’s very evident talking not just with players but to their agents,” Zaidi said. “That’s maybe sort of a set of relationships and a dynamic that isn’t that public. Managers have relationships with agents, too. … Bob’s so well respected and liked in agent circles themselves, not only players. Whether it’s Zoom calls or in-person, he’s just got a certain presence and gravitas that players I think are drawn to.”

Melvin, however, downplayed his impact.

“I don’t know,” he said. “At the end of the day, it’s what’s going to be the best fit for the player. Money, obviously, comes into play as well. So I think most of these guys have a pretty decent idea of what they want to do, where they want to go. But if it comes down to something, minutia or something like that, maybe the manager factors in. But I don’t know how much really at the end of the day a manager does in those type scenarios.”

While Melvin spoke of San Francisco’s star-driven market, he also said he was happy with the Giants’ current roster while acknowledging the same issues — speed, defense, athleticism — that Zaidi has identified as priorities this offseason.

He’s met most of the roster, including Logan Webb, Alex Cobb and Mike Yastrzemski, whom he ran into at their Papago Park training facility in Arizona, where he also organized a summit with his new pitching coach, Bryan Price. It’s still early, though, so the baseball talk was limited.

“I talked to Yaz quite a bit, and we talked more about his walk-up song, his Led Zeppelin walk-up song than anything else, so that resonates with me,” Melvin said. “I like the team as-is. Now, I know we are looking to add and we want to add, but Michael Conforto is a year off a surgery now. Usually that next year is a little bit easier. A healthy (Mitch) Haniger is a really good player. Yastrzemski is a good player. (Wilmer) Flores, (J.D.) Davis are good players. …

“I’m always going to tell you I’m fine with the team we have. So, shoot, if we get one at the top end I would be happy; if we don’t, I’ll be happy with the team we have and maybe some add in a little differently, maybe not the top two or three guys.”

Before taking his seat at one of two tables set up in a ballroom of the Gaylord Opryland Resort, Melvin crossed paths with Stephen Vogt, his former player who preceded him at the microphone as the first-year skipper in Cleveland.

Melvin was one of nine managers on site that Vogt had either played or worked for, he said.

They’re both in new jobs now, and that’s not all that changed. For once, Melvin was tasked with the encore.

“I used to use Stephen Vogt to end my meetings, a lot,” Melvin said. “So when you have team meetings, a lot of times it’s what do you do at the end? So having him was pretty easy. I said you got two minutes at the end, do whatever you want. Make everybody laugh.”

Vogt, however, was envious of one trait of Melvin’s.

“I’m a little more energetic and a little more emotional than Bob,” Vogt said. “I envy his stoicism at times. I can’t do that.”