Dodgers News: Farhan Zaidi's possible return, former LA minor leaguer signs with A's

After a relatively successful three seasons with the Dodgers from 2015 through 2017, former general manager Farhan Zaidi jumped ship to go to the rival Giants as their president of baseball operations. His tenure in San Francisco was laughably terrible, with the Giants whiffing on too many huge free agents to count — Aaron Judge, Carlos Correa (though Correa came with caveats), and Shohei Ohtani among them — and outside of their shockingly great 2021 season, they failed to put together a winning season in Zaidi's six other years.

The Giants fired Zaidi as soon as the regular season ended and announced team legend Buster Posey as his replacement in basically the same breath.

It was hard to feel bad for Zaidi — who once said that San Francisco couldn't spend big money on free agents because they had team employees to think about, as if they hadn't matched the Dodgers' offer to Ohtani just a month before — but it looks like he may be coming back to LA with his tail between his legs.

On Tuesday, Fabian Ardaya and Ken Rosenthal reported that Zaidi was discussing a return to the Dodgers front office (subscription required). It's unclear what his role would be, but it makes some sense for a guy who's spent his entire career with California teams. We're just glad he can't be one of the top guys.

Farhan Zaidi, Dodgers discussing a reunion; minor leaguer Drew Avans signs with the Athletics

In small transaction news, Triple-A outfielder Drew Avans signed a minor league deal with the Athletics, per MLB.com's transactions log. Avans was a 33rd-round draft pick for the Dodgers in 2018 and has spent his entire professional career with them.

Although he made it to Triple-A by 2021, he's been stuck there ever since and has never broken into the Dodgers' top 30. He put up some respectable showings in 2021 and 2022, batting .275 with a .826 OPS in the former and .282/.805 in the latter, but his power and OBP have dipped significantly over the last two seasons. He elected minor-league free agency on Nov. 4 and signed with the A's a few weeks later.

At least the A's are getting a couple of guys...? Walker Buehler recently shot down even the possibility of a discussion with who The Athletic termed the Las Vegas Athletics of Sacramento, citing the fact that he didn't want to play in Sacramento. The A's are probably going to experience a lot of the same kind of dismissal this offseason, but hey. A signing's a signing.