Giants finalize deal with Bruce Bochy for special assistant role

Bruce Bochy is nearing a deal to return to the Giants in an advisory role. CEO Greg Johnson told it for the first time Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle Tuesday that the parties were working on a deal. Bochy confirmed this Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic tonight that he is finishing up a position as a special assistant. He will be an excellent resource for first-year manager Tony Vitello. Bochy will join another future Hall of Fame executive, Dusty Baker, as special assistants in San Francisco.

The 70-year-old Bochy has led the Rangers for the past three seasons. He led Texas to a World Series in 2023, the fourth title of his career. Bochy famously led the Giants to three World Series in a five-year span from 2010 to 2014. President of baseball operations Buster Posey was a face of the franchise for most of Bochy’s thirteen seasons at the helm. Only Hall of Famer John McGraw, who managed the team for 31 years between 1902 and 1932 when the team was still in New York, has won more games in Giants history.

This could close the book on Bochy’s management career. “I would say that’s where I’m at right now,” he told Baggarly when asked if he expects his stint with Rangers to be his last in the dugout. “I would like to add that you never rule anything out. You don’t, you know? But I’m happy with what I’m doing now. … This is what I want to do. I want more time for myself and my family, but also to contribute to a game that I love.”

Bochy ranks sixth all-time with 2,252 managerial wins between his stints with the Padres, Giants and Rangers. He and Baker are the only two skippers within the top 10 not inducted into the Hall of Fame. That’s only because both men did well in recent seasons. It’s only a matter of time before they get to Cooperstown. (The same goes for Terry Francona, who is 12th on the all-time list and is now the winningest active manager with Bochy back in an advisory role.)

Managers are only inducted into Cooperstown through the Era Committees. Managers age 65 and older are eligible for Hall of Fame compensation six months after retirement. Baker and Bochy could only be considered by the Contemporary Baseball Era Non-Players Committee. That will come up during the 2026-2027 offseason. Baker should be in the Hall next winter. Bochy could be eligible for that cycle if he officially retires in a few months, but it appears he’d rather not close the door completely just yet.

There is also news about Vitello’s technical staff. Commercial reports that Twins bench coach Jayce Tingler has agreed to join San Francisco’s staff in some capacity. He will bring a significant amount of experience, as he managed the Padres from 2020 to 2021 and was Rocco Baldelli’s top lieutenant in Minnesota for the past four years. The Twins fired Baldelli and hired Derek Shelton as manager, so it’s not surprising that there will be some coaching turnover. Tingler and Vitello go back more than twenty years. They were teammates at the University of Missouri in the early 2000s.