The San Francisco Giants are targeting San Diego Padres manager Bob Melvin.

Major League Baseball's official media MLB.com reported on the 25th (Korean time) that "San Francisco has received permission from San Diego to interview Melvin, and Melvin has clearly emerged as a leading candidate to be the new manager."

Melvin began his Major League Baseball managerial career in 2003 when he took over as manager of Seattle. He has coached Seattle (2003~2004), Arizona (2005~2009), and Oakland (2011~2021) before taking the baton in San Diego from 2022.

San Diego invested a lot of money this season, but failed to qualify for the postseason with an 82-80 record. There has been talk that Melvin could be sacked because of his poor performance, but San Diego has announced that it will retain Melvin for now. However, when he granted San Francisco's request to interview the manager, he effectively signaled his intention to part ways with Melvin.

MLB.com said, "According to sources, San Francisco has agreed to appoint Melvin as the 40th head coach and the 18th head coach of the San Francisco era, which will be finalized soon. The club has not yet officially announced the appointment of Melvin."

According to Elias Sports Bureau, Melvin will become the fifth coach to head coach a rival team in the same district in the last 35 years, 먹튀검증토토사이트 joining Jeff Tobogg (Montreal in 2001, Miami in 2002), Bruce Bochy (San Diego in 2006, San Francisco in 2007), Freddie Gonzalez (Miami in 2010, Atlanta in 2011) and John Ferrell (Toronto in 2012 and Boston in 2013).

Melvin reportedly has a good relationship with Asian players. In Seattle, he worked with Ichiro Suzuki, and in San Diego, he developed a good relationship with Darvish Yu and Ha-Sung Kim.

Because of this, some argue that the chemistry between San Francisco and coach Melvin, who are looking for Asian players this coming winter, will be a good match. The Athletic, an American media, reported on the 20th, "Melvin has developed a strong friendship with Kim Ha-sung. Kim Ha-sung played with Lee Jung-hoo in Kiwoom and is still a close friend," Melvin said, emphasizing that he could help San Francisco recruit Lee.

San Francisco is aggressively targeting the Asian market, considering that there aren't many quality players on the free agent market this winter. On the 7th and 10th, General Manager Pete Putila personally visited the Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul to watch Lee Jung-hu's final game of the KBO League. Japan's top ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto (Oryx) is also on San Francisco's recruitment list, and general manager Farhan Zaidi has confirmed Yamamoto's pitching in Game 1 of the Climax Series Final Stage in Japan.

It will be interesting to see if San Francisco, which has recruited Melvin, will succeed in signing Asian players such as Lee Jung-hoo as expected.