SAN FRANCISCO — The Giants are in a rush. CEO Larry Baer and vice president of baseball operations Brian Sabean expect the club to contend every year, and in each of the past two seasons, the Giants failed to live up to expectations. Baer and Sabean are in a hurry to see the team return to the postseason and they’re eager to hasten the process. The duo wants to oversee a quick turnaround, but to ensure that happens, they know it’s imperative to slow down. After dismissing general manager Bobby Evans, the Giants have begun searching for a “next-gen” front office executive to lead the club into the future. The new hire will be asked to work at a breakneck pace, but the hiring process will not be expedited. “We’re not going to rush it and I don’t think it will be particularly quick because I’m sure there will be candidates with teams that are in the playoffs and candidates with teams that are not in the playoffs so you have to allow for folks to do their job with their organization,” Baer said Sunday. Baer and Sabean will spearhead the search for Evans’ replacement, who will have full control over the club’s front office and baseball operations department. In 2018, Evans reported to Sabean, but that chain of command will undergo a makeover. After the Giants settle on a new hire, Sabean will move toward the background. The next front office executive will receive a blessing to hire colleagues and revamp the department, a process that could take weeks and possibly months. Because the task of reversing the Giants’ recent on-field trends is so rigorous, the current leadership team will seek the highest-profile and most widely respected candidates available. Clubs with recent track records of success including the Red Sox, Dodgers, Yankees, Astros and Cubs will likely have members of their front offices involved in the Giants’ interview process, which may delay the announcement of a new hire. Several executives the Giants may have interest in could be working through the end of October for a World Series participant, which would likely hold up interviews. Under normal circumstances, a franchise may feel pressure to have a new front office executive in place by the start of Major League Baseball’s General Manager meetings, which take place November 6-8. However, Baer said Sabean can stand in if the search remains ongoing. “I don’t want to commit to (hiring before the meetings) because I just don’t know,” Baer said. “Would that be nice, yeah, but I don’t want to commit to that because we’ve just got to see how the process evolves.” Because the Cubs have been eliminated, Baer and Sabean may interview general manager Jed Hoyer or vice president of player development Jason McLeod. If the Yankees lose the American League wild-card game, New York’s assistant general manager Jean Afterman could be free to discuss the job. There are other potential candidates such as Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo and Rays vice president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom who are not tied down with postseason responsibilities, but ultimately, the Giants expect to interview a wide range of executives. Even if Baer and Sabean come away impressed from early dialogue with available candidates, they plan to do their due diligence and wait until they’ve talked to a wide variety of options. Related Articles Former SF Giants exec isn’t buying the A’s relocation threat: ‘It was a mistake to threaten to leave’ Dodgers tag Alex Wood for three home runs, SF Giants fall to 0-4 against rivals in 2021 SF Giants place Ruf on IL, call up Wade, Kapler details plan for Posey SF Giants set rotation for Dodgers series, veteran Scott Kazmir changing roles Kurtenbach: Giants-Dodgers Round 2 will tell us what we need to know about San Francisco Would a candidate who favors a full-scale rebuild be considered for a franchise that wants to contend annually? Baer didn’t offer a direct answer. “I think we’re looking for great baseball minds,” Baer said. “Brian has been doing this 26 years now with us and years before with the Yankees. The most important thing is a great baseball mind. I don’t think it’s, ‘What is your exact plan for 2019?’ or ‘What is your exact?’ I think flowing from a great baseball mind will be the right approach short-term, mid-term and long-term.” The Giants don’t conduct searches like these often. Sabean was hired as an assistant general manager in 1993, was promoted to general manager before 1997 and then helped transfer power to Evans before the 2015 season. The organization has a long history of stability and continuity, but as other clubs passed up the Giants, Baer and Sabean realized they must go outside to fix the problems that developed from within. “It will be organic, but as Larry has put forth and unfortunately in Bobby’s case, it was just a situation where we were trying to reinvent ourselves,” Sabean said. “And how do you best do that? You do it from the outside probably. With fresh ideas, fresh platforms.”<doc-sep>Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated Press The San Francisco Giants announced Monday Bobby Evans will no longer be the team's general manager. Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle first reported the news. Giants CEO Larry Baer said the team expects Bruce Bochy to return for the 2019 season, according to Schulman. Since he is signed through 2019, the team plans to offer Evans another job within the organization, but he will also be free to seek employment elsewhere. San Francisco entered Monday with a 72-84 record, the fourth-worst in the National League. Evans has been with the Giants since 1994 but moved to the GM role in 2015 after Brian Sabean was promoted to executive vice president. While the team won three World Series titles in five seasons from 2010 to '14, things have gone south over the past four years. The squad has a 307-335 record in this stretch, with just one playoff appearance that ended with a National League Division Series loss in 2016. The 68-94 record from 2017 represented the Giants' worst season in over 30 years. While San Francisco dealt with a plethora of injuries over the past two years with Madison Bumgarner, Buster Posey, Johnny Cueto and others missing significant time, there was not enough depth to overcome these losses to find success on the field. Video Play Button Videos you might like Bob Nightengale of USA Today noted the Giants will try to replace Evans with two different hires: Although the team said it will immediately conduct a search for the next GM, there are conflicting reports about a potential top candidate. According to Nightengale, former Los Angeles Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti is the current favorite to take the job in San Francisco. However, Schulman reported that Colletti will not be taking the job.<doc-sep>The San Francisco Giants head into the off-season with many unanswered questions about every aspect of their organization. The biggest question will be who the San Francisco Giants hire to replace former general manager and long time front office member Bobby Evans. San Francisco Giants CEO Larry Baer spoke at the time of the firing of Evans that they would be looking to add someone who would have complete control. “I think there will be a top person accountable,” Baer said. “I think it’s fully possible this person could ask to bring in some associates or colleagues.” Meanwhile, what is just as important is the questions Baer, vice president of baseball operations Brian Sabean and anyone else in the room with the Giants asks each potential candidate. We looked at some potential options to be hired for the GM job last week. While the next GM might make decisions without Baer or Sabean’s interference, they may only be hired if they answer the questions about the Giants most important players they way that they want. It’s possible that the Giants will stay out of the ultimate decisions about players and let the next person decide who to trade, who to hold onto and who to go after from other organizations. That being said, it is clear that the team will not hire anyone without getting answers to specific questions about their current personnel and the direction they plan to go in. What that direction is might be different from what fans are used to and there may be some long tenured Giants who end up somewhere else soon. Which players will remain is still a work in progress, but having a clear plan will be essential. Here are five questions every candidate will need to answer before they are hired:<doc-sep>
Team President Larry Baer and executive vice president Brian Sabean have begun informal conversations with potential candidates to become head of baseball operations and chart the Giants’ future, a job they might not fill ahead of the general-manager meetings in November. “We’re not going to rush it,” Baer said before Sunday’s game. “I don’t think it will be particularly quick because I’m sure there will be candidates from teams in the playoffs and teams that are not in the playoffs. That will allow for folks to do their jobs with their organizations.” More significant, Baer said the Giants do not plan to dictate a timetable for contention or major decisions such as trading or keeping Madison Bumgarner, but will listen to what the candidates have to say. “The most important thing is a great baseball mind,” Baer said. “I don’t think it’s, ‘Say, what is your exact plan for 2019?’ Flowing from a great baseball mind will be the right approach, short term and long term.” Sabean, who is helping Baer find his replacement as the top baseball decision-maker, did say Bumgarner’s future would be “heavy in the equation, and I’m sure that will come up in the interviews.” Baer, Sabean and manager Bruce Bochy are tapping into their networks of baseball friends and colleagues to help identify candidates. Sabean, asked how he would define a “great baseball mind,” said. “I don’t know that Larry can find it in one person, but if you’re asking me, it would be a combination of my skill set and maybe Bobby Evans’ skill set, somebody who’s strong on both sides of the house.” Sabean’s background was scouting and development. Evans, who was fired as general manager last week, was a savvy contract negotiator who also ran an analytics operation more vast than the Giants publicly acknowledge. “I’m sure Larry is going to bring in the most well-rounded and qualified person he can find,” Sabean said. “I do not see him interested in somebody who’s centric one way or the other.” One slice of the near future seems clear: Current management views Buster Posey as the 2019 catcher when he returns from offseason hip surgery, with Opening Day possible. “There’s been no discussion about him playing any other position,” Sabean said. “He’s our franchise player and he wants to catch.” Henry Schulman is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer.