Troubling News: Brian Bannister Left the Giants

As reported by various media (MLB.com for example), Brian Bannister left the Giants Director of Pitching position for the White Sox's Pitching Advisor position.  

ogc thoughts

I was actually gut punched by this one. I viewed Bannister as Zaidi's pitching guru, much like Dick Tidrow was Brian Sabean's pitching guru.  And now he's gone.

Here are some quotes (MLB.com) that align with my perception:

• [Bannister] emerged as a valuable resource for pitchers across all levels of the organization, offering feedback on everything from mechanical tweaks to analytics to pitch design. Along with pitching coaches Andrew Bailey and J.P. Martinez, Bannister helped turn San Francisco into an attractive destination for pitchers who were looking to rebound, with Kevin Gausman, Carlos Rodón and Alex Cobb among the team’s recent success stories.
• “He’s the think tank behind it all,” Cobb said. “I think a lot of the success that you guys have seen, all the reclamation projects that have happened, myself included -- he’s seen diamonds in the rough and understood how to incorporate what he saw in the dude. … It’s a huge loss.”
• “It’s a tough one,” added left-hander Kyle Harrison. “He’s a smart dude. He knows his stuff. He’s going to help them out in Chicago. Definitely a tough guy to lose. He definitely helped me out in my Minor League career.”
• “We’ll miss Banny,” Kapler said. “Such a great contributor for us for several years. One of the things that stands out about Banny and his skill set is he can diagnose problems very well. He thinks critically about how to fix those problems. He was a great resource to our Major League pitching staff, but also to our Minor League system. I’m happy for him, though.”

Also, Handy Andy Baggarly of The Athletic (subscription needed), as per usual, shared good and additional information as well:

• The Giants will have to keep developing pitchers without Bannister, whose innovations particularly in the areas of pitch mix and seam-shifted movement helped the Giants establish an organizational strength.
• Why did the Giants permit such a lauded member of their coaching staff to depart for a job that isn’t a clear promotion? Someone so important that they accommodated to work remotely all last season because he was not in compliance with Major League Baseball’s COVID-19 vaccine requirements?
• Zaidi said Bannister’s contract was expiring and so he informed the 42-year-old former right-handed pitcher that the Giants would grant permission to anyone who called. Bannister, who operates a private coaching and consulting business on the side, told Zaidi that the White Sox opportunity offered greater work/life balance. 
• “Nothing nefarious,” Zaidi said. “I told him we wanted to keep him, but we weren’t going to stand in the way if there was an opportunity he preferred for whatever reason.”
• Several Giants pitchers including [Alex] Wood and John Brebbia cited their work with Bannister and called his departure a significant loss.
• “He’s one of the smartest pitching guys I’ve been around and he has a lot to do with a lot of guys signing here,” Wood said. “Banny had a knack for identifying things you could do to be better, and also how to accomplish those things. He was really good at coming up with solutions you could try to propel yourself forward. But so are (pitching coaches) J.P. (Martinez) and Andrew Bailey. He’ll be tough to replace but they have good people here.”
• “That’s why I came here to begin with,” Brebbia said. “Looking around the league, seeing the pitchers who had come in and come out, there’s a distinct advantage to being a Giants pitcher. There are definitely other teams that are good at it. But it was pretty clear the Giants were in the elite level of teams.
• “There’s no question Banny is elite at what he does. Up and down, our staff on the pitching side — and that’s all I know because they haven’t worked with me on hitting, which in fairness, probably would be a waste of time — is incredible at what they do. It stinks to lose a guy like that. But anything Banny added to the organization, our current coaching staff can do.”
• [Andrew] Bailey added one more thought: Bannister might be leaving, but everything that pitchers and fellow coaches learned from him is still in the bank.
• “We can carry on his thoughts and perspectives and the ways he was able to educate myself and others in the organization,” Bailey said. “One of his strong suits is working with pitchers in the moment and understanding data points from a higher point of view. I’m very confident moving forward with the staff we have here and throughout the organization to continue to develop pitchers both at the major-league level and minor-league levels. … Hopefully we’ll bring someone in who will broaden our knowledge and make us even better.”

Here are some key Giants pitching stats since Bannister was hired:

• sixth-lowest ERA (3.81)

• lowest FIP (3.72)

• fourth-lowest xFIP (3.90)

• third-lowest BB/9 (2.75)

• third-lowest K/9 (3.15)

• lowest HR/9 (0.97).

I don't know the stats before, but given how poorly the Giants performed previously, I'm pretty sure it wasn't this good.  In any case, this type of pitching excellence is great for building a strong annual contender.  Thus, losing Bannister was quite the gut punch news for me.  

Furthermore, this is followed by Matt Daniels leaving last off-season for another job (find news about where he landed), as well as the Giants blocking Andrew Bailey, the third pitching guru that the team had, from joining another team, and the shock of Brian Sabean leaving the Giants to basically take a similar position with the New York Yankees last off-season.

Problems in the Front Office

The key question for me is this: why didn't the Giants try to retain him with a similar front office job? And the new position isn't that much different from the one he did for the Giants, so at best, this is a lateral move, which also suggests that Bannister just wanted to get away from the Giants.  

Life/work balance makes sense when you have to travel around teaching the pitchers, but the Giants were willing to let him zoom into training sessions before, and how is that not good life/work balance if he's working from home?  Perhaps he really enjoyed that freedom and closeness in 2022, but that was taken away in 2023 by having to travel again.  Still, if he really wanted to stay, and if the Giant really wanted him to stay, you would think they could figure something out, like in 2022.  Thus, I sense some upset on Bannister's part, as well as the Giants, and a parting of the ways was the best solution.

Still, all this churning of key personnel who were all helping Zaidi with scouting and advice on pitching does not speak well for his management style.  Sabean had hardly any churn among his lieutenants during his tenure as GM, they only left for better positions (and Ned Colletti is the only one who comes to mind, aside from all the various International Directors over the years; well, the other is Pat Dobson, but he passed away at a young age, he didn't leave voluntarily).  Though, this is a new generation, and employee turnover is not as big a deal in the new millenium as it was last century, so maybe I'm just being an old dinosaur.

Also, the quote from Baggarly assuage some of my upset that I had when I started writing this post.  It looks like the Giants at minimum have people in place who can do what Bannister did, and that they might be looking for his replacement.  It will be interesting to see who (assuming they replace him) they find.