TRUST ME I KNOW WHAT I'm DOING

Hi. This is Farhan Zaidi. I'm a Major League Baseball executive. Been in the game for twenty years, and you're listening to Trust Me. I Know What I'm Doing.

My name is Abhay Dandekar, and I share conversations with talented and interesting individuals linked to the global Indian and South Asian community. It's informal and informative, adding insights to our evolving cultural expressions, where each person can proudly say, trust me, I know what I'm doing. Hi, everyone. On this episode of trust me, I know what I'm doing, we share a conversation with Major League Baseball executive Farhan Zaidi.

Stay tuned. As always, thank you for listening and watching and making Trust Me I Know What I'm Doing part of your day and part of your life. I know it takes time and effort, and so I appreciate everyone listening, subscribing, rating, and writing reviews, and sharing this with all your friends and family. You can listen at all the podcast outlets everywhere and watch the episodes on YouTube. This week, a slice of Americana is returning.

Yes, my friends. Pitchers and catchers are reporting back this week for the first workout dates of spring training, and that means baseball season is right around the corner. Now some of you know, even though I'm an LA kid, I've been living in the Bay Area for nearly half of my life. It's created some tension in my circles as far as my sports loyalties, but the fabric of leading in sports in 2025 speaks to harmonizing so many ven diagrams between old and new, data and instinct, loyalty and agnosticism, and many other balancing acts. So it was really terrific to catch up with baseball executive Farhan Zaidi for a chat about all of this.

Now Farhan's pathway to baseball was itself extraordinary. He was born in Canada and raised in Manila by his Pakistani origin family, went to MIT for college, and while completing his PhD at Berkeley in economics, was hired in the mid two thousands as an analyst by the then Oakland Athletics at the height of the Moneyball era, working closely with Billy Beane. He'd already excelled as a scholar in risk and decision making, but bringing data and analysis to the people and performance platform known as Major League Baseball proved to be a natural fit for Farhan. He was promoted to assistant general manager in 02/2014 by the A's, then went over to my Dodgers to serve as general manager under Andrew Friedman for several years before joining up in 02/2019 with the local team here in San Francisco as president of baseball operations. Farhan's success was evident from his early contributions to the athletics being perennial contenders, to the Dodgers getting to two world series in 2017 and 2018, to being named MLB executive of the year in 2021, of note the first and only South Asian origin person to win the award.

We caught up recently as Farhan finished the season and his time here in San Francisco and just ahead of his recent new appointment and celebrated return to the world champion Dodgers as a special adviser. We talked about everything from reconciling feedback and learned lessons to the culture of baseball executives and his own multicultural background in a very American sport to even some thoughts about pitching and cultivating teams. But I started by asking him what it was like as an executive to be almost like this year's Juan Soto of free agents.

You know, as much as anything, I think it's strange because I have been fortunate enough to have worked for twenty years continuously in baseball. And whether it's the off season or the regular season, there's a certain rhythm to it that you become really attuned to.

And, you know, I've certainly had more time for my family, more time to relax. That's been nice. I mean, it was a difficult end to my tenure with the Giants. And to be honest, I'm still a little brokenhearted about it because I love the organization. I love San Francisco, but that's kind of the way things go.

I wouldn't put my free agency quite in the one. So I'm sorry. I'm very flattering. But, but, you know, it it has been it's been a silver lining is so many people have reached out, and, it's really reassuring to know that you go through your career and you make a lot of friends and connections and people that'd be excited to work with you again. So that's been a really nice feeling.

I guess it does go back to, you know, relationship development and what it means out there. And and the fact that you're not necessarily tethered to an organization right now probably brings a lot of those relationships into focus and sort of keeps that at the center of all of this. And yes, maybe not quite Juan So to esque, as you go forward, but, hopefully close to that. As you do navigate transitions, and probably everybody does this at some point in their career journey, but when you've gone through transitions in the past or even career leaps jumping from whether it's college and grad school to Major League Baseball, how do you thoughtfully sort of curate the feedback or even help do the autopsy, if you will, of the previous step and that previous role before moving forward in such a way that it sort of informs how successful or smooth the next transition will be? Is that something that, you know, you have to constantly be cognizant of or does that actually require some very focused and intentional time to just say, hey, listen, I I kind of need some time to really reflect, and therefore, you can't necessarily go to the next step without that reflection?

Yeah. I've had, you know, a good almost three months now to sort of decompress, debrief, get feedback, do the sorts of things that you're talking about. You know, professional sports is is such an interesting beast, you know, if that's the right word for it, because, you know, there's process. Process is really important, and then there are outcomes. And I guess it's similar to a lot of businesses out there where, you know, you you kinda need to be able to parse out, you know, the process from the outcomes and how much noise or luck factored into the equation and really separate out what are real lessons that you can kinda take forward to the next job.

And I certainly learned some lessons in my time with the giants, and there are things that I would have done differently, the things that I'll do differently in the future. But also know that you have a sound foundation and there's a reason why you've had your successes in the past. So to to have sort of a stable core of values and to really believe in your skill set is an important part of the process as well. So I think for me, it's it's being really candid about what happened, trying to learn some lessons, you know, trying to feel a sense of accountability for what happened, but also having some optimism that I can kind of take those lessons forward. Yeah.

I mean, I imagine that, like, it's a if there's so many different factors and stakeholders around people that, it makes up for what the outcomes are and then factoring signal from noise is always an important one. The steps that you had in your journey so far, are those previous steps and experiences that you've now had with different organizations and different people? And are they like sort of collectible trophies? Or are they actual puzzle pieces that are still helping to fill in the whole picture? I mean, you know, it's sort of like, I liken it to the sort of connect the dots picture that's still kind of in play.

Yeah. Or is it such that, like, no. You know what? My time with the a's, kinda trophy piece. Time with the Giants, trophy piece.

Time with the Dodgers, trophy piece. How do you kind of maybe merge those two together? Yeah. I think there are definitely lessons to carry over from each of those experiences and, you know, your relationships and your experiences in those places really form the type of employee executive that you are. So, you know, I think about my ten years with EAs.

You know, we're a pretty lean operation. We had to be really creative. We had to prioritize what was important and what wasn't because we just couldn't have the best of everything. Then moving to the Dodgers, that was different environment where, you know, I was coming from a smaller market team. Suddenly, I was in a big market.

It was a much bigger organization. I mean, the thing that really surprised me going from OpenTele was really just the scope of going from a smaller market team to a big market team and just how much bigger it felt, how much you know, how I feel like I feel like start up to, you know, major Yeah. Matrix or different organization. It was. And then, you know, coming to the Giants at, you know, a time that was a down period for the organization and needing to build that back up.

And, you know, one of the things that I candidly struggled with was sort of reconciling the recent past success of the Giants with, you know, a little bit of the need to turn the page and, you know, bringing new players and and and new blood into the organization. And so I think there are a lot of lessons from that too. So, you know, I I place great value in each of those experiences. Yeah. I think I've learned a lot from each one.

Yeah. I mean, they can certainly be trophies and puzzle pieces at the same time. Right. Right. I wonder as, you know, someone who has to, in a way, bear the brunt of some of that burden, right?

Burden of past success, burden of sometimes being in a small market and really in a startup like environment, and even the burden of a legacy with, say, the Dodgers. I mean, all three spots are are so different. As a front facing executive, you're you're certainly often the first to get blamed and the last to get congratulated in many experiences. So, I'm just curious, for you, how have you, in a way, sort of prevented or staved off loneliness in this job? That's a really good question, and it's it's really tough.

You know? I think one of the things that I learned coming with the Giants is how lonely that sort of seed is when you're the key decision maker in the organization. You know, when I was with Oakland, you know, I had a very close relationship with Billy Bean and David Forrest. And, you know, they're still two of my best friends on the planet to this day. When I went to LA, you know, I was the GM under Andrew Friedman.

We were very close personally. And I think so when I think about my time with the Giants, I worked with a lot of great people, and I'm really grateful for that. But I sort of, in in some ways, understand better the role that I played for Andrew and for Billy because, you know, there were times with both of those guys where, you know, I kinda wanted to be off on my own and Right. You know, they they could be a little clingy. You know?

Hey. Where are you going? Let's hang out. Let's talk. That's right.

Right. You're sadder. Thinking, I just wanna go to my office and, like, you know, and look at some numbers and watch some video. But I think those guys really recognize the power of camaraderie and the need for camaraderie when you're in kind of a key leadership position and just having people that, you know, we we start off the conversation talking about, you know, my personality. And and I feel like I mean, this is almost cliche, but, you know, you take the job seriously, but you don't take yourself seriously.

And Sure. Bringing that to the table in a highly competitive, highly stressful environment like professional sports is is just really, really important. Yeah. And I mean, you know, it can't be overstated, right? Being able to walk down the hall and share some ideas with somebody and know that there is comfort and solidarity with your colleagues that are out there as opposed to sort of living out the professional leadership life on an island.

That can get certainly taxing. In that way, does it also make it tougher to be a true fan when there's when there's almost, you know, you almost have to be agnostic or even dispassionate about the work and the roles that you play that in in a way to sort of take the fun out of it in some way? Yeah. I don't think you can really be a fan of the sport that you're working in. I know that sounds really harsh, but Yeah.

Everything you see is sort of through the lens of of your professional obligation. And I think what you wind up seeing is you see a lot of executives, like, a lot of baseball executives or huge basketball fans or football fans or soccer fans or You find outlets. Yeah. You have to kinda take your passion elsewhere because Yeah. In your own sport, it it it's just work.

And it doesn't mean you don't enjoy it. Doesn't mean that you're not passionate about it. But it's just kinda hard to be a fan. You know, when I have worked for, you know, the three teams that I've worked for, I I almost watched no other baseball. Like, maybe I'd watched the playoffs when other teams were playing.

Maybe I'd watch a team play if we were thinking about training for someone on that team, and I was sort of scouting. Yeah. But just kinda watching a baseball game for the fun of it, like, almost didn't do that ever. So Yeah. I think that's an example of what we're talking about.

You're listening to Trust Me. I Know What I'm Doing. After a quick break, we'll come back to our conversation with Major League Baseball executive, Farhan Zaidi. Stay tuned.

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In in that same spirit, because that's the sort of role and lifestyle of the modern professional baseball executive, it's a really different contrast from what the, I guess, age old adage of old time baseball guy or like somebody who's grown up as someone in Major League Baseball, particularly from the public face of someone who's, you know, gone up through the minor leagues and been a player and a manager and then kind of lived in a, front office role. Has baseball come to a point where it's apparent that the definition of the old school baseball guy has just changed? And in that way, especially the longevity of the old school baseball guy sort of has to marry this relationship and integrate data and integrate market pressures and integrate ownership economics and all those things along with the sort of instincts in the day to day of what it's like to be an old school baseball guy. Yeah. It's such an interesting term.

You know, I started with the A's back in 02/2005, which was kinda immediately after the, quote, unquote, moneyball seasons. It was Yeah. Right after the Red Sox using kind of moneyball tactics and strategies won the world series in 02/2004. You know, that was twenty years ago now. And so, you know, sometimes I take a little bit of issue with, you know, the perception that, you know, I might be a new school baseball guy or Right.

You know, something like that. I'm thinking, I've been doing this for twenty years. I mean, you know, you look at the giants and guys like Madison Bumgarner and Buster Posey and Brandon Crawford. These guys were all in high school when I started working with baseball. You know?

So Who's calling hold who? Right? Yeah. So I I you know, and that's look. You don't I'm not sort of saying anything about those guys, but just, you know, I've seen, you know, an entire generation of players go through high school, college, the minor leagues, the big leagues, you know, and into retirement now.

And, you know, look, there are people who've worked in baseball thirty, forty, fifty years, so all the respect to them. But Yeah. It's just interesting that this notion of new school has been around for two two plus decades now. And, you know, at some point, you would figure it's just kind of the way things are done. And in certain markets, it is that way.

And in other markets that maybe still have a more traditional slant, you don't really get that feeling like this is just the way things have been done for decades in the sport. Right. Right. And I wonder if, you know, in general, the pressures that you talk about, this integration, this like, yeah, it's so called new school and, you know, it's a lot of fodder for sports talk radio. But in I imagine real life and the day to day operations, I wonder if it's sort of you know, it has to be the mandatory recipe for longevity because I imagine also that it's it's everything's a copycat business.

Right? So in general, does relevancy and longevity kind of depend on how you can adapt to that blend of data, instincts, understanding the economics of things, relationship building, and cultivating that. I mean, it's all a big graphic equalizer, if you will, of of how do you modulate all these things on a day to day basis. No doubt. I mean, you know, it it is funny.

I've sort of learned in my time in baseball. You know, I think you get into the industry and you think that, you know, being a GM is like running a fantasy baseball team. Yeah. But I think what you learn is the sort of leadership and management challenges in baseball are very similar to leadership and management challenges in any sport. And Yeah.

You know, I guess maybe the one difference is baseball is very public. I mean, you've got a big audience that's paying attention to what you're doing. And I sort of think about, you know, one of my lessons being kinda just marketing our strategy and philosophy a little bit better. Despite the efforts that I made, I don't think we ever quite got there. I mean, it's interesting going back to that new school versus old school thing.

Yeah. Yeah. I think there's this perception that being new school or data driven is this is kind of the height of arrogance in baseball that you're a know it all. And I I've never quite understood that perception because the way I think about things, somebody asks me a question, you know, what's a more arrogant way to answer it by saying, well, my gut tells me x, so we're just gonna do x. Or is it or, you know, the alternative being, let me look at the information.

Let me look at the data. Let me think through it, and I'll give you an answer. To me, that's the that speaks to a much more humble world. I don't know the answer. I'm not just gonna Yeah.

You know, say I'm going with my gut feel, but really that, you know, I'm gonna be a little deliberate, thoughtful, look at the information, and then, you know, I mean, that's really the way most businesses work. Yeah. And and yet it's a razor's it's a razor's choice of of contrast. Right? Like, on the one hand, one answer exudes confidence and the other answer exudes humility.

And one answer is like, well, listen, I've got years of experience, and the other is more of a transparent, answer, right? So like in the end, are most of these questions that get asked either in the public eye or even behind closed doors, are they all just sort of the components of what you're constantly learning? And do you have to sort of balance transparency and and the ability to accept, you know, that your philosophy constantly takes tweaking? Is that just something that you have to grow to accept? And and, by the way, it gets easier as you just get more experienced and seasoned in this job?

Yeah. I think like any, like any job, like any profession, there's some learning by doing. I think when you first start, you have very specific ideas of of what works and what doesn't. And, you know, you learn as much from your failures as your successes. Sure.

You know, I I remember one anecdote from you know, one of the things that I really appreciate about my time in Oakland is, you know, Billy Beam threw me right into the fire. I was in his inner circle from day one. I was in the Draft Room. I was there at the trade deadline. I mean, I was in places I had no business being with with no experience.

Yeah. And he was very forgiving because I was kind of his guy, and we got along well. And I think he knew that this was gonna be a little bit of a process of development. You know, other people in the organization who I was imposed on probably didn't have that as charitable of you. I remember and I think back to the first time I was in the draft room in 02/2005, and I said most some of the most absurd, ridiculous things.

I mean, you know, I you know, one of the areas that, you know, people have tried to advance in in in the draft and in terms of selecting players in the draft is understanding how much to have a statistical approach, what numbers really matter in the draft. Sure. And that's sort of still ongoing process. But at the time, I just thought anybody who puts up good good stats in college is gonna be a good draft pick and do a pro ball. And Yeah.

That is definitely not the case. But Right. Eric Kubota, who was the scouting director with the A's at the time, I joke with him even now about how insufferable I must have been that person. Right. He he never he never disagrees with that.

I mean, he might laugh it off, but he he never says, no. You were you were fine. So, I think we've learned a lot. And do those messages, like if you were to take 2024 and try and, you know, send some faxes back to 2004 or 2005 Are there different ways that you would approach that? Or or is it such that, like, nope, you know, the the thinking of of that day and age was perhaps that much more forward that the rest of the crowd around you wasn't necessarily ready to to think about that?

No. I, you know, I actually think the lesson I've learned has less to do with advancing my own thoughts, backing off on some of them, recognizing that there was a lot of wisdom in the conventional way of of of thinking and doing things. And, you know, maybe some of the value that I could bring was more incremental rather than scrap everything and start all over again. Sure. Yeah.

Building on some of the institutional laws that was already in place. Yeah. No. And, you know, so you mentioned that these are some of the learnings and the stepping stones. I wanna ask you a slightly, separate or at least a thought question here.

You know, you're someone who your family is Pakistani in origin, and you're born in Canada and you spent some formative years in Manila and The Philippines. How is this, you know, journey perhaps contributed to your longevity or even the stickiness in a very, very American institution like Major League Baseball? Right. Well, I mean, I I would say, first of all, I've just been really fortunate to work with some people who viewed my background as a strength and not an impediment. As as straightforward as that sounds.

I mean, again, Billy Beams, you know, not only did we become friends, but he became friends with my family, my parents. My my mom would cook him Pakistani food every time she was here. He you know, we were in New York visiting them. So, you know, that appreciation for somebody who's been exposed to multiple cultures, I really value it. I I try. And, you know, I really feel like I've been a champion of that diversity, not just because of my own story, but because it's something that's really important to me. So, you know, there have been a lot of challenges along the way because baseball is a very conformist, homogeneous culture, you know, as a lot of professional sports are, but baseball probably more than any. Yeah.

And, you know, it's always been something lurking in the background. I think, you know, we talked about this idea of being old school or new school. You know, when you have a background like I do, you know, with family from Pakistan and, you know, not being somebody who's born and bred in The US, you're always kinda gonna be viewed as that new school guy no matter how long, you know, you've, you've worked in the game. And and, ythink for me, you know, coming from those different cultures and having those different life experiences probably enabled me to connect a little bit better with with with people, especially people in baseball who are also from, quote, unquote, unconventional or unusual backgrounds.

And Yeah. You know, baseball has a long way to go, but it's certainly becoming a more diverse indusou know, that's where I think kinda sometimes I view the term old school as a little bit of a dog whistle. You know?

It's, well, people who've been here, people who've done that. So I actually don't like using that term because I think it has a lot of, you know, subtler implications that Sure. You know, I'm just somebody who really believes that the sport belongs to anyone and everyone. Yeah. No.

That's a great way to put it. And on top of that, I mean, you know, the idea that, like, that that in background informing a lot of resiliency and the way that you can navigate and relate to people and and really, you know, make sure that the sport transcends labels, in that way.

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Let's rejoin our conversation now with Major League Baseball executive and special advisor to the Los Angeles Dodgers, Farhan Zaidi. You you're also someone who's you know, whether with the organizations you've been with, the A's, the Dodgers, the Giants, you've had from a just building relationship standpoint, you've had to hire and you've had to acquire and you've had to fire and, you've had to manage contracts and negotiate new ones. From that vantage point, what have you had to perhaps unlearn about yourself personally in order to sort of succeed professionally? Yeah. That that's a great question.

I mean, I I think this really comes from, you know, my South Asian background and upbringing. But, you know, I think in our culture, we have a really strong notion of fairness and treating people the same way and treating people consistently. And, you know, I think sometimes as bizarre as it sounds, that value has kind of been to my detriment because we might be looking at a certain player who we have to release. And we say, well, look, the last three guys that we did this with, we released them with these kinds of terms. And so that's the fairest thing to do here.

Yeah. But, you know, if you go ahead and release those players under those terms, let's say they're not that favorable to the player. Somebody writes an article about that release, and they make it seem like you're the worst human being on the planet. You know? So I don't know if that makes sense, but, you know, my notion of consistency and fairness, it it doesn't always mean everybody gets, you know, some kind of windfall.

Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad, but I think just treating people consistently and fairly is is really important. And and I think, you know, sometimes I don't think it's, you know, it's a different cultural phenomenon, but I think because baseball is a very public sport and because of the way it's covered, a lot of times people make value judgments on on specific incidents in isolation and don't look at the the broader scope of how you treat people and how consistent you are. Yeah. And and is that something you've had to sort of unprogram about yourself and that, hey, you know what? When I'm when I'm thinking about this as an executive and taking the total calculus in Yeah.

Versus, you know, how I operate or how I manage and and think about relationships outside of the baseball world? Yeah. I I think that there there's an element of pragmatism to it. There's sometimes you have to let go of your nation notion of fairness to do what, you know, maybe is gonna play best, you know, if you're looking at something that's a very high profile situation. Sure.

And that doesn't sit well with me, but it's just the reality of the job when you're working in such a public setting. May I ask you, some purely baseball related, you know, questions. From both a talent standpoint and even thinking about the finances that are involved, is starting pitching a bygone staple? And do you think 2025 is going to actually be the year or maybe even the beginning of the era of the opener? Yeah, it's a really good question.

I mean, I still think a conventional you know, construction of a five man rotation is a great idea, and it's an ideal. But, you know, there's a supply and demand issue in baseball, which is there aren't a 50 starting pitchers that can make it wire to wire that can make 30 to 34 starts. And so you you're gonna have to find a way to patch it together. Now when I was with the A's back in the late, you know, in that 02/2007 to 02/2012 era. Yeah.

We started toying more with unconventional pitching staff alignments and and maybe having a tandem rotation where you have eight pitchers and two guys, you know, combined to make the quote, unquote start every day and get you into the seventh inning or so. And, you know, maybe have five relievers to pitch at the end of games. But, you know, I I think, you know, it's interesting in in the Giants sphere. Again, it's a very traditional, quote, unquote, old school fan base and, you know, they didn't like the notion of the opener. But I think the reality is to get through a season, you have to find ways to win games when you don't have a pitcher who can give you six or seven games because that's just not going to happen in all 62 games.

So Well and not to not to mention the primary outcome and metric is always gonna be wins and losses, but the other one is definitely longevity of your personnel and and injury prevention. Right? So Right. Right. You know, with the so many pitching injuries that are just rampant throughout the major leagues, I wonder if that's that formula of having someone get you at least five, six innings per start, if not more, the days of people going complete games and and that kind of stuff.

It seemed like they're just over. Yeah. I mean, again, if you think about that tentative approach where you have two guys who are each pursuing three or four innings in a game, I actually think that is the best combination of ensuring the health of your pitchers and being effective from a competitive standpoint. Say you have a righty and a lefty and then you can can't tandem. You get a lot of matchup advantages doing it that way.

You know, Major League Baseball doesn't like that idea. They want starting pitchers because they think and they're probably right about this that that people come to games to see starting pitchers to see a starting pitching matchup. Yeah. So that's kind of the tension that exists in the game right now is Sure. Are we gonna do what's right for the players from a health standpoint?

Are we gonna let teams do what's right from a competitive standpoint? Are we gonna impose the structure because we think this is what fans want? Not to mention, you know, the financial solvency of paying people for their value and their worth. Couple quick quick ones here. I mean, thinking of, like, the transparency of vision philosophy and, you know, the states of winning and winning now are are so incredibly high.

How do you balance that that philosophy of surrounding stars with the right complementary players versus cultivating stars from sort of within a team that celebrates and and really values the growth and the development of everybody collectively. I mean, it goes back to this idea of, does Major League Baseball and do fans and fan bases, do they just want stars and they want sort of secondary people around them, or do they do they like teams and do they like personnel growing together? It's it's a really interesting question, and I think at the end of the day, people want winners, whatever that means. I remember when I first spoke to Giants ownership, you know, my vision was I want the Giants to be the San Antonio Spurs, the New England Patriots of Major League Baseball. And, again, I think that's a cultural thing that comes from my own background, which is sacrificing the individual for the sake of the team.

You can build that culturally in any organization and especially in a professional sports organization. It's a really, really powerful thing. Now, you know, when you're trying to cultivate that, sometimes it it runs counter to this notion that fans want stars. They want, you know, the guys who they're really excited about. They wanted to buy the jerseys of those players.

I mean, I think you can have a team approach where stars emerge. I think that's what you were referring to. Yeah. But you're right. The way fans view, you know, the off season, they wanna see their team sign, you know, one or two stars.

They don't really care about they're not as interested in approach. Like, yeah, this is a really effective way to build the roster, and I think this is gonna lead to wins. Now Yeah. Again, I think it just boils down to wins and losses. You know, you look at the Detroit Tigers, you know, who are run by, Scott Harris, who's the GM under under me for a couple of years.

You know, they wound up using a lot of openers and unconventional pitching strategies in the last couple months of the season. They made the playoffs. You don't hear anybody saying, the Tigers need more more seven inning pitchers. I you know, they had an amazing last two months of season. They made the playoffs, and people are really excited about it.

So, you know, I think maybe there's there's higher stakes when you're engaging in a strategy that is can be viewed as unconventional. Like, you you do need it to succeed because if you don't, people will view that as the reason why people won't succeed. Whereas if you are, you know, engaged in conventional strategies and you don't don't win, nobody's going to blame the strategy. It's going to say you weren't good enough. Right.

I mean, and and yeah, exactly. Right? It's all on the field. And in the end, it's a good reminder that, you know, pennants aren't won by fans on barstools in March. So, here's a couple of rapid fire ones.

All right. So who is the smartest player you've ever been around? That's a really good question. I would say from a from smart in terms of baseball, Chase ugly. It's it's not even close, actually.

Wow. Okay. Yeah. Who is your what's your favorite on field baseball moment that you personally witnessed? I would say, you know, clinching the 2021, NL West division title with the Giants on the line.

Not what I wanted to hear, by the way. Yeah. Sorry. That that was pretty amazing. Yeah.

But I'll I'll, glad my Dodger gear is not with me right now. And then, what do you think about the golden mat bat rule? Alright. This is gonna be a little bit of a long answer, but I'm I'm for it if it's what fans want. I mean, I think one of the beauties of baseball is that, you know, you might have a superstar player, but he only gets to bat one once out of every nine times.

You might have a superstar starting pitcher, but he can only pitch once every five days. I mean, in that sense, it's a true team game. But if we're moving to an era where people wanna see their stars more, you've gotta figure out ways to do it. Yeah. And then last one, if you had to pick a single player right now to build a team around, who would it be?

I mean, I have to go with Ohtani just because of all the things that he can do. So, maybe that answer makes you a little happier. Yeah. Well, yeah, I'll I'll say that. At least this year, it did.

You know, I'll get you out of here on this. And I I have always thought about phases and quantums that people leap into and out of in their careers. And as you think of this juncture, when you reflect on the past and now you're moving forward into the future, What are you hoping, and and because, again, you've you've been around this, you know, profession and Major League Baseball for so long now, but what do you hope your legacy is gonna be? What are you thinking about when it comes to lasting impressions on not only just the people you work with, but but truthfully on on fans and and students and and people who really love the game? It's a really tough question, and it's a tough one to think about right now, you know, with, you know, the way the season wound up.

You know, I would like to think about my legacy as, you know, being in an era of baseball over the last twenty years where a lot of things changed and, you know, where, you know, I played a small part in it. And, you know, I think a lot of things have changed for the better. I think the sport has really evolved in a lot of ways. I think the look of the sport, you know, from a diversity standpoint has evolved a lot. And, it's been a really special time to be in baseball.

And, you know, I'm I'm just grateful to have played some small part in that. Well, Farhan, you've been cultivating some special moments for fans and for fans everywhere. And on top of that, serving as a real innovator and thought leader in Major League Baseball. Thank you so much for for joining me today. This this is really a treat, and I hope we can do it again down the road.

Thank you. It's it's been a real pleasure. Thanks so much, Farhan. Baseball season starts this year with the Dodgers playing the Cubs in Tokyo. A huge shout out to Nick and Brad and all the humans and canines over at Al's Barber Shop in Alameda.

Very gratefully, everyone leaves there a little smarter, a little happier, and with a little less hair. Till next time, I'm Abhay Dandekar