Brian Sabean is back in the Yankees organization after being with the team from 1985 to 1993

Brian Sabean was recently named executive advisor to general manager and senior vice president Brian Cashman. Sabean has a long history in scouting and finding impact players, which means he will be able to bring a good balance with the Yankees reliance on analytics.

After being in the Yankees organization starting in 1985 as a scout and in other similar roles, he was the San Francisco Giants general manager for 18 seasons from 1997 to 2014. He was their general manager when they won the World Series in 2010, 2012 and 2014 and was named the National League Executive of the Year in 2003.

In Sabean’s 18 seasons as the general manager, the Giants finished above .500 in 13 of the 18 seasons and the team made the playoffs in seven of the 18 seasons. The Giants made the playoffs seven times in those 18 seasons and in their previous 26 seasons they only made the playoffs two times.

During his 18 seasons the Giants had their most successful era in franchise history. He was GM in the only time that the team won three World Series in a six year span. However, the Giants did win two consecutive World Series in 1921 and 1922 (this series included a tie in Game Two) and then lost the next two Fall Classics. His 18 seasons as GM was unquestionably the best era of any team GM since the team relocated from New York City to San Francisco in 1958.

He has proven that he knows how to find talented players and build a very competitive team. He will be able to bring helpful insights to the Yankees front office.

From his first season as general manger through the 2004 season, the Giants had one of their most successful stretches of seasons in their history. They averaged 92 wins a season. His strategy during this time was to trade away young prospects for veteran position players and to develop the team’s pitching talent. He proved he knew who to trade away since many of those prospects did not turn into productive MLB players.

Some of the players that he was able to acquire via trade during the period from 1997 through 2004 were Jeff Kent, Jason Schmidt, Robb Nenn, Kenny Lofton, Andres Galarraga, Ellis Burks, Roberto Hernandez, Wilson Alvarez and Jose Mesa. All of these players made an impact to varying degrees with the Giants.

He is rightfully credited for the Giants turnaround since they had a very impressive improvement under his watch. In 1996, the Giants had a 68–94 record, which is 26 games below .500, but in his first season as GM the team had a 90–72 record, which is a 22 win improvement.

Sabean is a proven scouting guru and this hire is an attempt to balance their analytics heavy front office. Sabean can only help the Yankees chances at signing players that will positively have an impact on the team. Sabean will also be able to help give his scouting knowledge based on decades in the game on the right players to drafter and international players to sign.

Sabean began his involvement in Major League Baseball as a scout for the Yankees in 1985 when he was 29 years old. Being hired by the Yankees came after previously being a manager in the prestigious Cape Cod college summer baseball league in 1978, an assistant coach at Saint Leo University and then having the same position at University of Tampa from 1980 to 1982. He became head coach of the Division II University of Tampa Spartans in 1983 and led them to their first ever NCAA regional tournament in 1984.

He proved his acumen and knowledge since he was promoted to Director of Scouting of the Yankees in 1986, one year after he became a scout with the team. He advanced to become the Vice President of Player Development/Scouting in 1990.

With the Yankees, he drafted or signed as amateurs impact players such as Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, J.T. Snow, Jorge Posada and Andy Pettitte.

“I’m all in. I’ll do anything to help the Yankees win a World Series,” Brian Sabean said on a conference call shortly after being named to his executive advisor position. He will look to be a key factor in acquiring players who can be key factors who can help the Yankees win another World Series just like how Jeter, Rivera, Posada and Pettitte were key pieces in the late 1990s dynasty that saw the Yankees win four championships in five seasons.

In 2018, Cashman said that Sabean was “one of the unsung heroes” of the Yankees’ late-90s dynasty for playing roles in drafting/signing the Core Four and Bernie Williams. Williams was an integral piece of that late-90s dynasty but the reason he is not in the Core Four is because he had retired before the World Series in 2009 and Jeter, Rivera, Posada and Pettitte were all on that team.

Brian Sabean on why the Yankees drafted Jeter — “The organizational tendency was to take college players, but he was one of the best athletes in the country. But the athleticism was undeniable. You knew you were watching a special player.”

He left the Yankees organization after the 1992 season and joined the Giants in 1993, which meant he was with the Yankees for seven years, and the end of those seasons were very impactful since the players he drafted or signed led directly to the dynasty of the late 1990s.

In 1993, he served as the assistant to the general manager of the Giants and their vice president of scouting/player personnel. His title would change slightly since before becoming general manage in 1996 he was senior vice president of player personnel in 1995 before being promoted to be the most influential person in the front office.

From 1997 to 2014, Sabean’s tenure as the general manager, the Giants recorded the third-best winning percentage in the National League (.534, 1,556–1,358), behind only the Braves and Cardinals. His .534 career winning percentage ranks 10th all-time among all general managers since 1950 who served at least 10 years.

When Farhan Zaidi was brought on to be the Giants president of baseball operations in 2018, Sabean ended up taking a step back into the role of Executive Vice President. Sabean said that he had expected to have more involvement in that role than he ultimately ended up having.

Since Sabean did not have the role he expected, he let his contract expire last October and reached out to the Yankees himself to arrange a better opportunity that would be in a location better suited to his family’s needs.

Sabean is 66 years old and began having a prominent role with the Yankees in 1986 and has continued to have an influential role since then. He has lots of experience scouting and evaluating players, so he will only be able to help Cashman with his input to help balance out what the analytics staff is saying.