Most of Pete Putila’s adult life has been spent devoted to developing many of the players who will take the field Tuesday in Game 1 of the American League Division Series, the beginning of the Astros’ sixth straight postseason appearance.
But the night before, rather than preparing for the Mariners or reveling in Houston’s success, Putila was on a Zoom call with Bay Area media, being introduced as the 10th general manager of the San Francisco Giants — Farhan Zaidi’s new right-hand man, the replacement for Scott Harris, who last month departed for the top job in Detroit.
A logical question for the new guy, then, is there any particular Astros player who best exemplifies the fruits of your labor?
“Yeah,” Putila responded, “I think our starting rotation is a testament to that.”
He continued.
“Our starting shortstop.”
“Starting center fielder.”
“Starting third baseman.”
“Second baseman.”
“The list sort of goes on,” he said.
The Giants? The last remnant of the homegrown core from their championship run is on the verge of retirement. Besides Brandon Crawford and Brandon Belt, San Francisco proudly claims Logan Webb, who this year became its first homegrown Opening Day starter since Madison Bumgarner. But who else?
Joey Bart, the Giants’ highest draft pick since Will Clark, caught that Opening Day start and figures to have many more, but had to spend a month in the minors to work out his hitting struggles. Hard-throwing Camilo Doval, who signed out of the Dominican Republic in 2015, is proving to be a back-of-the-bullpen fixture for years to come. Austin Slater, an eighth-round pick in 2014, is one-half of a solid outfield platoon.
But look around at the remaining playoff field: the Mariners have Julio Rodriguez; the Yankees have Aaron Judge (for now); Atlanta has Austin Riley, Spencer Strider, Michael Harris II and more; even on the $280 million Dodgers, drafted-and-developed catcher Will Smith bats cleanup, and Julio Urías and Clayton Kershaw headline the rotation.
Houston might boast the most homegrown talent of any playoff team.
With Putila, 33, the Giants will have the youngest active general manager in the majors, a title that once belonged to Harris. Putlia grew up in a small town outside Pittsburgh, his dad telling him tales about Roberto Clemente, and went to college in West Virginia, where he also served as the baseball team’s student manager.
At 21, then-Astros GM Ed Wade hired him as an intern and promoted him to full-time staff a few months later.
Putila survived two owners, three general managers and one sign-stealing scandal. At one point in 2020, after the fallout of MLB’s investigation into the Astros’ cheating on their way to the 2017 World Series, Putila was the top-ranking official left in the Astros’ front office; however, he said he did not interview for the GM job that eventually went to James Click.
“I’ve gotten to see the organization transform over the years,” Putila said, denouncing the Astros’ sign-stealing and claiming he had no knowledge of it. “Just some of the success (and) some of the failures, it’s good to be able to reflect back and focus on those successes and make sure we avoid any of the failures.”
(Zaidi said he confirmed with MLB that Putila was not part of the league’s investigation, which cost some their jobs. Putila was Houston’s director of player development during the cheating scandal when the Astros beat the Dodgers in the 2017 World Series. Zaidi was the Dodgers’ GM at the time.)
Many of Putila’s 12 years in the Astros organization have been devoted to creating, maintaining and adapting one of the game’s most highly regarded player development systems. He began overseeing all major- and minor-league development in 2016 and was promoted to assistant GM in 2020.
“One of the things that really excited us about Pete is the fact that he has an extensive background in player development,” Zaidi said. “That doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re limiting the scope to the minor leagues. We’ve talked a lot over the last couple years about how much we value continued player development through and including the major-league level. That’s really been a point of emphasis throughout Pete’s very successful career with the Astros.”
Flick on TBS at lunchtime this week (Tuesday or Thursday, 12:37 p.m.) for a visual representation of Putila’s résumé.
The fruits, to which Putila alluded:
- Four-fifths of the Astros’ starting rotation — everyone but Justin Verlander — signed as international amateurs and were developed through their farm system, which Putila oversaw starting in 2016. The quartet of starters — Framber Valdez, Cristian Javier, Luis Garcia and José Urquidy — totaled 10.1 Wins Above Replacement this season, according to Baseball-Reference’s calculation.
- All four of their starting infielders — first baseman Yuli Gurriel, second baseman Jose Altuve, shortstop Jeremy Peña and third baseman Alex Bregman, who combined for 14.1 bWAR — were either drafted or signed as international free agents (though Altuve made his MLB debut the same year Putila started as an intern).
- Their second-biggest home run hitter, Kyle Tucker, mans right field and was a first-round pick in 2015. Tucker’s final tally? Thirty, a number no Giant has reached since Barry Bonds. Next to him, in center, is Chas McCormick, a 17th-round selection in 2017.
- And their DH? That would be Yordan Alvarez. An unheralded prospect when the Astros acquired him from the Dodgers for reliever Josh Fields who became the league’s top power hitter besides Judge. (The Dodgers’ GM at the time? Zaidi.)
Zaidi explained why Putila’s skillset — “the ability to cut through a lot of noise and information and identify things that are really important” — is particularly useful in the field of player development.
“There’s no shortage of ideas, technologies and points of view in player development,” Zaidi said. “But actually streamlining it and identifying key priorities for the organization and things we really want to focus on and be best in class at … I think Pete will be an incredible asset to us in achieving that.”
Putila is leaving an organization in the playoffs — one that won 100 games for the fourth time in five full seasons — for one that is not, though he lauded the resources coming to his disposal in San Francisco.
The Giants hope some of that foundation has already been laid: top pitching prospect Kyle Harrison should debut next season, shortstop Marco Luciano was as good as advertised when healthy, and outfielder Luis Matos is off to a hot start in the Arizona Fall League. Third baseman Casey Schmitt is regarded as one of the top defensive prospects in all of baseball and could arrive next year, as well.
However, the Giants’ depth at the upper levels of the minor leagues was particularly scarce this season, and when Cole Waites debuted late in the season, he became the first player signed or drafted and developed under the current regime to reach the majors.
Putila, along with farm director Kyle Haines (who got a full endorsement from Zaidi), will surely be tasked with addressing some of those shortcomings.
His former club will play in the ALDS this week and possibly deeper into October. Putila, though, will be leaving immediately for the Giants.
“Yeah,” Zaidi joked, “I think he’s going to have to buy his own tickets to the Astros playoff games the rest of the way.”
“I’m ready to roll,” Putila said. “It’s 10 p.m. here, and I’m pretty wired.”
