Brian Sabean's four-decade baseball odyssey took another turn this week as he re-joined the New York Yankees as general manager Brian Cashman's executive adviser.
The 66-year-old Sabean helped lead the San Francisco Giants to World Series titles in 2010, '12 and '14. He was the Giants' general manager from 1996 until 2014, then was promoted to executive vice president of baseball operations from 2015-18.
Sabean worked for the Yankees as a scout in 1985, then director of scouting from 1986-90 and vice president of player development and scouting from 1990-92. He moved to the Giants in 1993 as assistant to the GM and vice president of scouting/player personnel in 1993 and was promoted to senior vice president of player personnel in 1995.
His arrival in the Bronx is curious, given the team's 13-year pennant drought and fans' calls for Cashman's removal. Cashman successfully re-signed All-Star slugger Aaron Judge to a nine-year, $360 million deal, pacifying fans in the process. However, another failure to advance in the postseason could push Hal Steinbrenner to make some changes in the front office.
During his time with the Giants, Sabean helped add free agent Barry Bonds, while trading for All-Stars Jeff Kent, Robb Nen, Kenny Lofton, Andrés Galarraga, Ellis Burks, Joe Carter, Wilson Álvarez, Pat Burrell, and José Mesa, not to mention six-time Gold Glove winner JT Snow.
Sabean joins former Chicago Cubs GM Jim Hendry as an adviser to Cashman in a front office that includes assistant general managers Jean Afterman and Mike Fishman, and vice presidents Damon Oppenheimer (domestic amateur scouting), Kevin Reese (player development) and Tim Naehring (baseball operations). Hendry joined the Yankees before the 2012 season as a special assignment scout.
Sabean shifted to an executive vice president role when Farhan Zaidi took over a restructured front office as president of baseball operations after the 2018 season.
A graduate of Eckerd, where he played with future major leaguer and high school classmate Joe Lefebvre, Sabean was an assistant baseball coach at St. Leo in 1979 and at the University of Tampa from 1980-82, then was Tampa's head coach in 1983 and '84.
