LAS VEGAS – Last April, the Texas Rangers made a trip to San Francisco, where part of the weekend included retirement ceremonies honoring Giants-favorite Brandon Crawford.
Among the dignitaries on the field for the event: Bruce Bochy.
Despite wearing a Rangers uniform, he might have gotten as warm a response as the day’s honoree, a sign of just how much Bochy meant and still means to Giants fans. And it might help explain why Bochy bypassed the Rangers’ offer to be a special assistant to President of Baseball Operations Chris Young to return to the Giants in a similar role.
“I wasn’t sure what I’d do when the season ended,” Bochy told The Dallas Morning News on Tuesday, a day after he was officially named as a special assistant to San Francisco’s Buster Posey. “I spent 13 years with San Francisco. After putting some thought to it, it’s just where I thought I should be right now. There are a lot of familiar faces.”
Rangers
The most notable of those is Posey, who holds the same title with the Giants that Young holds with the Rangers. When Young lured Bochy back to managing after 2022, a not-insignificant part of the sales pitch involved the relationship Young forged with Bochy during one season together as a player in San Diego. Posey played under Bochy for 11 of his 13 seasons in the majors. The bonds are even stronger.
“When I played, I didn’t really consider him a friend; he was in the seat of power and I stayed in my lane,” Posey said Tuesday at baseball’s General Managers Meetings. “But I consider him a friend now. It’s easy for me to pick up the phone and talk with him.
“He reads people well, he’s got a great mind for the game and we’re just thrilled to have him back in the organization. I think I get most excited because I can tell he’s excited about it as well.”
Though he’d expressed interest in continuing to manage in September, Bochy said there was no animosity in his departure from the Rangers. He agreed with the label of it being a “mutual decision.” Bochy said the Rangers had approached him about discussing a contract extension following the 2024 season, but he maintained that he’d asked the team to put any talks off until after 2025 to see where he stood on continuing to manage.
Among the things that Bochy discussed with Young, he said, included the potential that the Rangers would go with younger players.
So he was aware that the club would go into a season with a lower payroll than the preceding year for the first time since dropping from the preceding year for the first time since the club dropped from the planned $171 million in 2020 (the season and payroll was diminished further by the COVID shutdown) to $111 million in 2021. He did not indicate that the potential payroll drop had any impact on the decision to part ways.
“I’m glad they gave me a chance to get that [managing again] out of my system,” Bochy said, though he did not specifically use the word “retire.”
“I’m in a good place right now. I really enjoyed my time with the team, the staff and the fans in Texas. I’m grateful I got to get back in the dugout.”
Bochy said he talked with Skip Schumaker after the latter was named Rangers manager in early October and praised his hire, but he wasn’t concerned that his presence in Texas would hinder the new manager in any way. He will see Schumaker at an annual get-together born of baseball people with ties to San Diego in January.
“That was never a thought,” Bochy said. “I would never hover over anybody. [In San Francisco] I’ll do whatever Buster asks wherever and whenever he thinks I can be of use. I’ll be at the winter meetings as another set of eyes and ears for him. If there is something on the field with [first-year manager Tony Vitello], I’ll do what I can. I’ve gotten to know him, too. I’m in a good spot.”
Texas was a nice getaway for him, but San Francisco has become his baseball home.
“I don’t think I had to sell him on it,” Posey said. “It was more of a conversation like, ‘You know, Boch, to me you are a Giant,” and then I just gave him space.“
He is a giant – or Giant – in so many ways. And the Giant has gone home.
United front: How D-FW pro sports teams are ‘setting the standard’ for civic engagementCan Rangers afford to use nearly a third of payroll on Jacob deGrom-Nathan Eovaldi tandem?
Find more Rangers coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.