November 4th, 2014 at 11:59 pm 
by Ron Cervenka Just when it appeared that the Dodgers might not have a general manager to send to the annual general managers meeting scheduled for next week in Phoenix, it appears now that they do.
Dodgers beat reporter Ken Gurnick tweeted late Tuesday afternoon that Oakland A’s assistant general manager Farhan Zaidi has been hired by Dodgers new President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman to fill Ned Colletti’s recently vacated general managers position.
Like Friedman, Zaidi is 37 years old. He grew up in the Philippines and upon moving to the U.S. earned an undergraduate degree in economics at MIT and a PhD in economics at Berkeley.
“He’s absolutely brilliant,” said A’s general manager Billy Beane upon learning that Zaidi was in talks with the Dodgers. “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.”
Farhan Zaidi
(Photo credit – Susana Bates)
Ironically, Zaidi decided to try his hand in baseball after reading Michael Lewis’s bestselling book “Moneyball.” He approached Beane who immediately hired him and eventually worked his way into the assistant GM job. In that role Zaidi proved to be outstanding at providing statistical analysis, evaluating and targeting players in the amateur draft, free agency and on the trading block.
“I’m more worried about losing him to Apple or Google than I am to another team,” kidded Beane.
Zaidi was instrumental in the A’s acquisition of Cuban superstar Yoenis Cespedes who Beane uncharacteristically traded away at the July 31 trade deadline for Red Sox left-hander Jon Lester – a move that many baseball experts (and fans) criticized and blame for the A’s late-season skid that cost them the AL West title.
It was reported last week that the Dodgers were also courting former Diamondbacks and Padres general manager Josh Byrnes for a possible front office job, possibly even the GM position, but it now appears that Byrnes will be brought on-board in a scouting director role.
Friedman has still given no indication if he plans to bring back any or all of the Dodgers coaching staff for next year. Perhaps this will be among Zaidi’s first orders of business in his new role as the Dodgers GM.
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I’ll take my usual roll of just sitting back and see what happens next.
Huh!
MLB’s Canadian general manager count is up to three with the Los Angeles Dodgers hiring longtime Oakland Athletics executive Farhan Zaidi to take over their vacant GM role.
Zaidi was born in Sudbury, Ont., and joins Alex Anthopoulos of the Blue Jays and Doug Melvin of the Brewers as current Canadian-born GMs. Zaidi was 10th on Bob Elliott’s annual list of most influential Canadians in baseball in 2013.
Even though he moved to the Phillipines before his fourth birthday and his parents were born in Pakistan, the 37-year-old calls his connection to Canada a “point of pride” and returned to his birth country every other summer to visit relatives while growing up.
He is also apparently the first Muslim general manager as well.