There seems to be a whole lot of mixed signals from San Francisco Giants fans these days.
On one hand, business is brisk. The Giants nearly drew 3 million fans last season. Their attendance forecasts are at least as robust, if not better, for 2026. You can’t walk two city blocks without seeing a Giants cap or shirt, whether it’s the traditional color scheme, the Licorice Pizza City Connects or the new Gigantes gear that the team will wear for Saturday home games. Spring training was as lively as ever in Scottsdale, even as record-setting temperatures soared past 100 degrees.
On the other hand, the Giants are on their third manager in four seasons — a crazy amount of volatility for an organization that formed a through line across four decades from Roger Craig to Dusty Baker to Felipe Alou to Bruce Bochy — and they’ve spent the past four years cleaved to the bosom of .500 tighter than a 3-year-old with maternal separation anxiety. As you might expect, the factions of the fan base that are very online are also very unhappy. Having the free-spending Los Angeles Dodgers as your archrival and NL West competition certainly doesn’t quell any feelings of inadequacy.
Getting swept by the New York Yankees to start the season — and scoring one run in three losses — won’t help, either.
Should the Giants be spending more? Are they on the right track? Where does ownership stand in these uncertain times when the media landscape is fragmenting, some of their golden-goose revenue sources have migrated to distant shores, and there’s a likely lockout coming this offseason after the collective bargaining agreement expires?
And what does it mean, really, that the Giants stand alone in a one-team market now that the A’s have officially flown their coop in Oakland?
Giants chairman and control person Greg Johnson took questions about these topics and many more in a wide-ranging interview with The Athletic before Friday night’s game. The following interview, which will run in two parts, has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
Tony Vitello is an unconventional choice to manage. Buster Posey, who hired him, was an unconventional choice to head up baseball operations. Moving up the organizational flow chart, then, does this make you an unconventional control person?
Maybe? (Laughs) I think there’s this perception in sports, maybe more so than in the business world, where if somebody has the right set of skills and has proven themselves, that’s a lot more important than coming up directly through that channel. For us, looking at the whole landscape, Tony was somebody that has been on the radar for a lot of MLB teams, but nobody pulled the trigger on it. And Buster, one of the many parts I like about Buster, is he’s willing to put it out there and take risks and bring in the kind of person that he thinks is going to build the kind of team that we want. Tony has won everywhere he’s gone. He’s 47. This is his life. And I think a little bit…
Read More: Giants chairman Greg Johnson Q&A Part 1: Tony Vitello hire, payroll, real
