Dodgers Rumors: Farhan Zaidi To Be Named General Manager

They hired Andrew Friedman away from the Tampa Bay Rays, moved Ned Colletti to a senior advisor position and lost Logan White to the San Diego Padres. Friedman announced that he would be looking for a general manager as many names have been linked to the team. Josh Byrnes, Gabe Kapler, Chad MacDonald and Farhan Zaidi have all been rumored as possible hires to the front office.

It appears that the Dodgers have made a decision on a general manager, according to Ken Gurnick of MLB.com:

Dodgers will name Oakland's Farhan Zaidi the new general manager later this week, according to baseball source.

— Ken Gurnick (@kengurnick) November 5, 2014

Zaidi is currently the assistant general manager and director of baseball operations for the Oakland Athletics, working under Billy Beane. The Athletics lost in the Wild Card game this season after blowing a lead in the AL West in the second half of the season. The 37-year-old has been with the team for 10 years and last season was his first as assistant GM. During the season, the A’s were one of the more aggressive teams in the trade market. They acquired Jason Hammel, Jeff Samardzija and Jon Lester to bolster their rotation, losing Yoenis Cespedes and prospect Addison Russell in the process.

The possible new Dodger GM has a Ph.D from Berkeley and a bachelor of science from MIT, and specializes in statistics that has helped Oaklan better evaluate players and analytics. Zaidi will replace Colletti, who built the team that has won consecutive NL West titles but failed to reach the World Series.

While the hire is not official, the Dodgers will likely make it so later this week.