MLB NEWS

Zaidi will be Dodgers’ new GM

The Sports Xchange

November 04, 2014 at 10:44 pm.

The Los Angeles Dodgers are turning to a man with a head for figures as their new general manager.

Oakland A’s assistant general manager Farhan Zaidi will be officially hired as the Dodgers’ GM later this week, multiple media outlets reported Tuesday night.

The Dodgers’ front office, revised since new president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman took over and GM Ned Colletti was reassigned last month, figures to include other new faces, too. Former Arizona Diamondbacks and San Diego Padres GM Josh Byrnes will join the Dodgers, multiple media outlets reported.

According to ESPNLosAngeles.com, Byrnes might be the scouting director, but the Los Angeles Times reported that former Padres scouting director Billy Gasparino might take that role at Chavez Ravine.

Zaidi received a bachelor’s degree in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a doctorate in economics from the University of California, Berkeley. The Canadian-born, Philippines-bred 37-year-old became interested in the analytics side of baseball due to the work of Bill James and the book “Moneyball,” about Oakland GM Billy Beane’s innovative approach.

Zaidi eventually got a job with the A’s and rose to a lofty position in the organization.

“He’s absolutely brilliant,” Beane told the San Francisco Chronicle in February. “He has a great qualitative mind, but also a creative mind. The ability to look at things both micro and macro is unique and Farhan could do whatever he wants to do, not just in this game, but in any sport or business. I’m more worried about losing him to Apple or Google than I am to another team.”

Speaking of his role on Beane’s staff, Zaidi told the Los Angeles Times earlier this year, “Coming from economics and sort of my background in academia, I’ve developed a little bit of a contrarian nature. … Whether you’re an analyst or whether you’re a player-development instructor or whether you’re a coach on the big league staff, there’s no one vantage point that will lead you to every answer. So again, it comes back to the fact that it’s a collaborative process.

“When you get to that place where everybody appreciates and knows that they don’t have all the answers, that there’s really a true exchange of information and it’s not just going one way, that’s sort of an atmosphere we’ve been able to cultivate. And I think that’s part of the reason we’ve been successful.”