Giants Chairman Greg Johnson sets a course for the club (2024)

Peter Magowan wore pastel shirts and his passion on his sleeve. Bill Neukom was known for his snappy bow ties. The top of the Giants’ organizational pyramid has gone by the titles of managing partner, CEO, and in simpler times when Horace Stoneham wore a tweed coat and bowler in the stands, club owner.

The current title is control person, a Major League Baseball-mandated designation that consolidates franchise power and voting rights with a sole individual. And as of February 2020, that individual for the Giants is Gregory Eugene Johnson.

The Giants announced in November 2019 that Johnson would become the permanent replacement for interim control person Rob Dean, who had taken over following MLB’s suspension of CEO Larry Baer in response to a physical altercation with his wife. The change in governance would have happened regardless. MLB encouraged clubs to designate control people who represented principal ownership stakes, and at roughly 28 percent, the Johnson family owns the largest portion of the Giants.

Greg Johnson, 59, is the son of Charles Johnson, the billionaire financier who took over his father’s fledgling financial services company in the 1950s and grew it into Franklin Resources, Inc. — a global investment company that manages more than $700 billion in assets and has offices in 35 countries. Greg Johnson had served as CEO and chairman at Franklin from 2005 until he stepped down early last year to helm the Giants — just one month before the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered spring training.

Greg Johnson envisioned shaking a lot of hands, hosting a multitude of lunch meetings and spending his first year familiarizing himself with the names and faces who comprise each area of the organization. Instead, he’s as sick of Zoom as the rest of us. It’s been a highly unusual time to step into a new role — and then there was the uproar from both inside and outside the organization at his father’s scattershot political donations to Republican candidates, some of whom have dabbled in conspiracy theories or represent extreme views.

In Greg Johnson’s first interview since taking over as the Giants’ chairman of the board of directors and control person, he spoke to The Athletic about his father’s political contributions in addition to many other topics: his role on MLB’s competition committee, his vote of confidence for a baseball operations department led by Farhan Zaidi, the franchise’s post-pandemic financial outlook, his personal leadership style — and perhaps a reason to believe that Buster Posey will be a Giant beyond this season.

The following transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

Many Giants fans know that the Johnson family holds the largest ownership stake in the club, but not much beyond that. What has been your personal experience with baseball? What was your father’s experience? Did you play? What was your fan experience or exposure growing up?

I grew up playing everything, every kind of sport. I played Little League, and I played Babe Ruth (League), out in Burlingame. Once I got to high school, I played football, soccer and tennis and gave up my baseball side. But the influence of sports has always been a big part of my life and certainly, the Giants have been a team that I have followed since we moved to California in the early ’70s. I would characterize myself as a diehard Giants fan, prior to any Johnson involvement. And obviously, a lot more today.

As a 12-year-old, didn’t you have established New York baseball loyalties when you moved to the Bay Area?

I hate to say it, but I was a Yankee fan at that time living in northern New Jersey. But baseball goes back a ways with the family. My father had been a baseball fan. He has a picture where Willie Mays is making the catch (in the 1954 World Series), and my father is in the bleachers with his father. You can actually blow it up and see him standing in the bleachers as Mays has his back turned at the Polo Grounds.

How do you expect your experience as a baseball fan will inform your perspective as you transition into this role? Peter Magowan, for example, was a very passionate fan and he was active in reconnecting with former franchise stars, appreciating franchise history, etc. How about you?

Baseball to me is a very unique sport, very unique from the fan-engagement standpoint. It’s unlike any other sport. It’s getting away from all the noise and having a game where there’s no time clock and there’s the ability to talk to your family and the people around you. Growing up, some of my greatest memories with my family have been watching the playoffs. Whether it’s (Travis) Ishikawa’s home run (to clinch the 2014 pennant) or something else, those are the moments you remember with your kids. When (Pablo) Sandoval hit the three home runs (in Game 1 of the 2012 World Series), I was sitting right there with my son, and to this day, we’d put it up there amongst our greatest experiences. So baseball has something different from any other sport. There’s a family and friendship aspect of going to the park, being able to have some downtime and talk, and then experience some really exciting moments. My perspective, what I bring is a competitive nature — my wife would say too competitive — to win. I take every game far too seriously. But ultimately, what I want is to do everything possible to get back to the kind of franchise that the Giants expect to be and that’s being a competitive, winning team.

Is it accurate to say that the Johnson family didn’t become the team’s largest stakeholders by strategic design? Was it more out of a sense of obligation when your father stepped up as other owners wanted to divest in the early years of the group or following the untimely passing of Harmon and Sue Burns?

I wouldn’t call it an obligation. You’re never obligated to purchase more, and my father, I wouldn’t want to speak for him. But I think he got more and more interested and engaged in the Giants and therefore he felt like it was a good thing to keep increasing ownership. And part of it with the loss of Harmon and Sue was being in a position to help out to purchase some of those shares, having those long-term relationships and being so close with them. But certainly, it was more about him becoming engaged and interested in what the Giants were doing and the path they were on.

What percentage of the team does the Johnson family own?

I’m not sure what the number is right now. I think it’s under 30 percent. It’s 27, 28 percent, something like that.

The Giants’ corporate governance has changed quite a bit — from CEO Larry Baer acting as MLB’s designated control person to owner and board member Rob Dean serving on an interim basis and now to you, officially taking over in February 2020 following the official end of your 15-year run as CEO of Franklin Resources. It’s understood that MLB has mandated that club control people represent principal ownership interests in the team. Other than that mandate, what other factors went into your stepping into this role?

Well, first of all, the timing was good for me. I was at Year 16 of being CEO of Franklin Templeton, which is a long time for a large public company. We were ready to make the transition and move me to a pure chairman role instead of chairman and CEO. And as for my love of the Giants and sports, it’s not like I came in fresh and new. I’ve been engaged with Larry and the Giants for a long time. But you only have so much time when you (run) a company that has offices in 35 countries. I was on the road probably 50 percent of the time. So I just couldn’t commit to doing more with the Giants.

I think Larry did a great job representing the ownership as control person, but it was an exception to MLB wanting the ownership group more directly represented. So I think it was good for the Giants to have a principal owner represented at the table as the control person. And then having a more traditional structure with the separation of baseball operations from the business side is more in line with many other baseball organizations. All those factors led to me stepping into that role.

There is no shortage of examples of MLB owners exacting influence on baseball operations or directing major signings. Do you believe in a clean separation between President Farhan Zaidi’s group and ownership when it comes to player personnel decisions?

From my perspective, what I look at is accountability and responsibility. How can I measure my head of baseball ops if the business side is dictating or pushing free-agent signings? That’s the temptation, right? For the business side, it’s about season-ticket sales and excitement. I know (signing a major free agent) is going to increase my fan engagement next year, but I’m signing a player that I know in year six, seven and eight is going to be problematic for the franchise. And that, I think, is a difficult balance for the business person to have. Now, I’m not saying we didn’t do a good job of balancing that. I think we did. But it’s very hard to hire somebody of Farhan’s caliber, tell him he’s there to build baseball ops, and then have some somebody on the business or the owner side tell him, ‘Well, I don’t like that signing’ or ‘Boy, tell you what, go out and get that guy.’ How then can you evaluate whether they did their job or not?

So I would say we feel very confident in the structure today. We feel extremely confident in the direction of the team and what Farhan is doing. He keeps me completely up to date and we speak on a regular basis. Even some of his small signings, he’s texting and saying, ‘Here’s what I’m looking at.’ And I think that’s what I need. I’m continuing to learn. I’m engaged. I’m asking a lot of questions. But he has an accountability and trust with us right now. And I think that’s the formula and structure for success going forward.

And for you, how would you evaluate yourself? What kind of qualities or personal history or skills do you bring into this role that lead you to believe that you’re going to be successful?

Well, I’ve spent my entire career in management, 30-plus years in a large, complex, global company. So I hope I’ve learned a few things, you know, about management and how we think about metrics, accountability, succession planning. It’s always good to bring in fresh perspective and I have the luxury of being able to ask a lot of dumb questions: Why do we do it this way? Is that the right structure? Why is this person there?

And I also come from a business that’s full of stars. The asset management business is one in which people could name 10 of our executive fund managers and probably nobody could name the CEO. And that’s fine by me. That’s why when you talk about style, I’m not stepping into this role for people to know who I am. I’ll do whatever is required to help the team as far as visibility and being out there, but this is about Larry and Farhan and the team. I think it’s one of the best executive teams in baseball, one of the most seasoned executive management groups that you’ll see. I want all of those people to be more visible.

How would you describe your leadership style?

First of all, you have to know what you know and know what you don’t know, and to be honest with yourself about that. So I’ve been listening and learning and reading quite a bit over the last year and asking a lot of questions and trying not always to impose my thoughts. I would say my style is making sure I get the best people in those senior jobs with the best people underneath them to develop plans for the organization that are not just about today, but what we’re going to look like in three years and five years. And then make sure the management teams are engaged in developing the underlying talent. Those are things you can transfer to any organization.

Prior to the governance change, not many people were aware that it was your sister, Jennifer, who sat on the Giants’ executive board to represent your family’s interests. Now she is taking over for you in the CEO role at Franklin Templeton. The two of you are trading places, in a sense. How was that decision arrived at?

First of all, Jenny is a big Giants fan but I’m not sure she would ever want this role. Where for me, it was such natural timing and it brings together the two things I love, which is management and sports. And anybody who has been at one place for 30-plus years … you know, I’m still very engaged to Franklin. I’m executive chair. But I have much more capacity and time, and even Jenny didn’t have the time when she was on the board. When you’re on the board, you’re coming to quarterly meetings, getting updates, but you’re not engaged day to day. The amount of time I’m spending with MLB on different committees and planning and things, I would never be able to do that until now. It was just a time where Jenny was ready to take on the CEO role at Franklin. And I’ve been doing it for a long enough time where I was ready to move on to something exciting and new. That’s really why the change occurred at this time.

Will you have an office at the ballpark, whenever the day comes that we can go back to working in offices?

Rob (Dean) had an office when he was there. And we said we’d share that. This has been one of the many hard parts of COVID. I feel like I’ve built very strong relationships and communication with Farhan and Larry. But when you’re not in an office, it’s hard to grab Alfie (Felder) or Staci (Slaughter) or Mario (Alioto) or any of the other (senior executives) into a room and think through an issue. … So I look forward to this season, when we get cranked up and can go back to that. I don’t see myself being in there every day, but I certainly see myself being in there a few days a week, taking different people out to lunch, and just listening. Because I want the input. There are a lot of areas, whether it’s competition, rule changes, things that I’d like to get a broader perspective on. That was really my goal for this year — building those stronger relationships and engaging with the whole senior team — because it’s been set back.

Let’s talk about COVID-19. How would you assess its financial impacts, especially relative to other major-league teams? And in terms of the job cuts that were made (10 percent of front-office employees), do you intend to restore any of those positions? If so, when?

First of all, from how the executive team pivoted to working at home to the responsibility of taking protocols seriously, I think our team did an excellent job. And that includes the baseball side with Farhan and (manager) Gabe (Kapler), with the accomplishment of zero positives (during last season). It was a lot of discipline and also probably a little luck as well. But I would say that the senior team did a tremendous job in executing in an unknown environment and getting through a season that nobody really thought was possible.

As for the challenge of restructuring: This is not what I signed up to do — to come in and have to cut costs. But like any crisis situation, it allows you to take a hard look at your cost structure and your organization. Realignment is part of a changing business. How we engage with fans is changing. We may not need as many people calling season ticket holders directly versus engaging with them in a more efficient, digital way. So a lot of these changes were already happening. And there’s the reality that we were an organization built for three million fans and that wasn’t happening because of COVID so you didn’t have that same revenue. And again, where I come in as a CPA, I want to look at numbers. One nice thing about baseball is you can look at what every other team is doing. And so we can benchmark a lot of what we’re doing against what other groups are doing. And I think that lends itself to a good discussion with the management team and saying, ‘Well, why are we spending this here? Are we spending too little here?’

The reality of this last year is that we’re losing a lot of money. The ownership group wants to break even if they can. That’s not happening, obviously, right now. It will happen at some time in the future. And I would say that any efficiencies we can gain now are going to put our product on the field in a stronger position, because ultimately, you want every extra dollar to go to player development and payroll. Period. Because that’s how you win. So we’ll continue to make investments in things like (the new minor-league complex at) Papago, which will be a state-of-the-art facility in (Arizona). That’s part of our overall plans of building the farm system and having among the best player development in the league. That’s the path. So the investment in those kind of things continues despite the COVID downturn.

You pushed back construction costs and delayed Papago’s opening until 2022 because of the debt you took on to cover expenses last year. But the Giants’ overall amount of debt, especially relative to franchise value, is comparatively healthy. Would you agree with the assessment that the Giants are in an enviable financial position relative to other clubs?

I would. With Papago, you’re correct, we slowed down. But we green-lighted it again. Initially we just said it was so uncertain (whether) we’d get new (ownership) partners, and with the additional debt, we just said we had to hold any capital expenditures because of the huge losses we were incurring. Now we’ve managed through that part of the cycle and have a little more security. That’s why we felt comfortable green-lighting it.

But to go back to your question, you’re absolutely right. We’re fortunate that we are in a good position with how we didn’t have much debt at all. Now we have some debt, but we also brought in some new investors to help with cash flow. And the other component is that for the first time in many years, we have a lot of (player) payroll flexibility next year. So all of those factors put us in a good position relative to the rest of the league.

Can you provide an update on the status of broader organizational initiatives such as Mission Rock?

We’re excited about where Mission Rock stands. Visa’s world headquarters will be there. You can see the progress being made on site. And the timing is interesting from the city and community standpoint — building a new neighborhood at a time when there’s a lot of (pandemic-related) question marks with cities all around the United States. It’s a reason to get excited about San Francisco and a reason to come back. You look back at how the ballpark changed that neighborhood from 2000 to today. I think it’s another transformational project that we’re very excited about, not only the commercial space with Visa, but providing low-income housing and creating a beautiful destination, neighborhood and community that’s all linked in with the Giants and Chase Center. It’s just a great time to be pushing ahead in this kind of environment, when there’s a lot of pullback and uncertainty about real estate. We’re just in a good position, having locked up a major lease (with Visa) for that building before COVID. And also the construction, I think, helps in a down cycle versus the maximum cycle, too. We’re long-term believers in San Francisco and believe that this will be another crown jewel for the city. And it’ll be another reason for people to move to the city.

Do you view Mission Rock as a targeted opportunity or is it just the beginning? Will the Giants continue to expand into real estate development?

I think (Mission Rock) is synergistic to what we do in the neighborhood. I’m not sure we’re going to become a real estate company. Baseball is our focus and Mission Rock just makes us a stronger organization. Like I’ve said, we don’t do anything to create a bottom-line profit. Whatever we do incrementally to strengthen the financial side of our team strengthens what we put on the field, and hopefully that means more wins at the end of the day.

You mentioned being a long-term believer in San Francisco. To what extent do you believe the Giants should represent the values of the city and region?

I think we do reflect the values of the region. If you look at our 500 employees, whether they’re San Francisco-based or not, I think we absolutely reflect the values of the Bay Area. And part of that is an openness for all views, whether it’s somebody kneeling during the anthem or different diverse views. I think part of it is just being inclusive of all of us. And I think we absolutely have a group that is very closely linked to San Francisco.

How do your father’s political contributions factor into your assessment of that culture? How would you respond to some of the pushback from fans, up to and including boycotting or cancelling their season tickets, in response to those contributions to Republican candidates, including some who are perceived to hold extreme views?

First of all, I think we get pushback on a lot of different things. So you have to put it all in perspective. The kneeling … that’s pushed back on by some people as well. I think we just have to be tolerant of everybody’s individual viewpoints. In particular, with my father’s donations, he’s made the statement that he believes it’s completely separate from the Giants. I would say that, you know, to judge somebody on a tiny, small political contribution versus the whole picture … nobody has the whole picture. I can tell you that he’s donated 100-x of any political contributions to education, to hospitals, to building emergency centers, to low-income housing, to special-needs housing. Those numbers, nobody reads about and nobody talks about. Whatever side you’re on politically, when your biggest dollars are going towards education and hospitals and health care and housing, that should be more important from my perspective.

With that said, he would also recognize, as I would, that we don’t want to do anything that hurts the Giants. And if that narrative now is that any donation is going to be scrutinized and picked apart, what I would want him to do is to be more targeted and vet more carefully any political donation in the future. But again, we’re all free to support who we want. I do think a lot of it has been mischaracterized in the press. I’ve had conversations with him, and he doesn’t want to do anything that affects the Giants or affects morale with the staff. And hopefully that means that we all avoid this in the future.

In the past, it’s seldom been considered controversial to donate to major party political campaigns. But now there are elected officials who dabble in conspiracy theories or hold extreme views. There was a violent insurrection at the Capitol to attempt to block the certification of a presidential election. In this climate, can you understand why some Giants fans feel they need to be vocal in expressing their dissatisfaction with your father’s contributions?

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, look, we all know that emotions are high on all sides. It’s very easy in this social media world to pick one piece and it gets momentum. We all know that it’s hurting our democracy. It’d be better if we all listen to each side, and I think that’s the beauty of what Gabe talks about too, in his personal protest and kneeling for the anthem. He was baited into a discussion with (President Donald Trump) criticizing him, and he had the appropriate answer, which is, ‘Look, we’re a nation of many different views. We all have that freedom to express that view. And if we all listen to each side, we’d all be a little better off.’ And I think that’s the right approach to this.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s daughter, Christine, serves on the Giants Community Fund board. One of the congressional candidates that your father financially supported, Rep. Lauren Boebert, was tweeting the Speaker’s location in the midst of the insurrection. So what happened that day, and your father’s financial support of someone like Rep. Boebert, was obviously very personal to Christine Pelosi. What did you say to convince her to remain on the board, and what would you say to other outspoken members of your organization, including public address announcer Renel Brooks-Moon?

First of all, I would also want to state that I am absolutely in line with my father’s view on what happened in the Capitol. It was inexcusable, atrocious, and anybody who walked in that place should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. I mean, it’s scary. If I had a family member who was in there … I absolutely understand the emotional response that she had. What I tried to do was to make sure, again, we didn’t hurt the Giants through this. And getting reasonable people that know the parties involved to talk with them and just kind of take the emotion down a bit, you know, was the ultimate goal. But, you know, I absolutely sympathize with what she went through.

Let’s shift gears to hiring practices. With so many disturbing recent reports of sexual harassment from men in positions of authority throughout baseball, are you satisfied with where the Giants are in terms of vetting practices and corporate training to ensure an equitable and non-threatening workplace culture? What more could or should be done on a local level?

Obviously, it’s something that the Giants take very seriously. In terms of comprehensive training, vetting, looking at best practices, we feel very good about what we do. We have a very active diversity, equity and inclusion committee within the organization that has a lot of input. Now, with that said, we all feel like we can do a better job. And that’s the goal of the organization. I would also say that if you look at the number of women who are senior leaders with the Giants, I’d put us right up there with any organization. Can we do better? Yes. Will we do better? Yes. That’s where you look at your hiring practices, and all of that is very much a focus of the leadership group right now.

You touched on this a bit earlier when you gave Farhan Zaidi a clear vote of confidence, but what other thoughts do you have about the performance of the current baseball operations group?

If you look at where we are today versus where we were when we hired Farhan, it’s probably one of the biggest shifts in baseball operations for any team. From the young coaching staff to the improvement on the player development side with analytics, it’s been very dramatic in a fairly short period of time. Those are the things that we want to see: that we are moving in the right direction for the organization. As we continue to do that, we feel like we’re on the right path to have a competitive, winning team. As far as fan patience and bringing in stars and free agents, I think we have a very smart fan base. Based on the things that I read and see and get on Twitter, people really seem to understand that you don’t win by going out and outbidding the other 29 teams for three or four free agents. You win by having one of the best farm systems and scouting systems and developmental systems. That’s where the emphasis is with Farhan. He’s a very thoughtful leader, very smart; he’s brought in tremendous people. I think (GM) Scott Harris, (vice president of performance and wellness) Colin Cahill, they are bringing a fresh perspective, a new skill set.

I look at baseball and there was the Billy Beane era where it was, ‘All right, let’s use analytics to evaluate talent.’ That alpha has been taken out of the market because everybody understands how to evaluate talent using 100 different metrics now. So it’s really become how you develop talent. How do you take somebody’s slider and get the RPMs up another 300? Or whatever the goal might be. That’s what we’re building. And with the hitting coaches, especially, you’ve seen the impact. You took people that, you know, some would argue were on the downside of their career, and all of a sudden, you saw a resurgence in numbers and buy-in from a lot of players. So that clearly shows what they’re doing is making a difference, not only with the farm system, but with our veteran players.

It’s undeniable that the team has improved from year to year, yet the improvement has been incremental and the Giants haven’t finished above .500 since 2016. Meanwhile, the NL West is a daunting environment with two of the most exciting and talented teams in baseball. What does ownership consider a fair timeline to produce the next Giants team that will be capable of winning 90-plus games and winning division titles?

I’d ask that question to Farhan as opposed to me. As I said, I’m more concerned about the direction and making smart baseball decisions, which goes to everything I’ve seen in his philosophy and how he explains his thought process to me. And that goes for how he analyzes other teams’ trades and free agents as well. He’ll say, ‘This is why I wouldn’t have made that move.’ As far as setting a (timeline), I’m more worried about the trend. And I think, unfortunately, one of the impacts of COVID was getting that development of young players in the farm system by and large didn’t happen last year. So in fairness, we all have to take a little bit of a breather on the development timetable there. But looking at what he’s built, we have optionality depth in a lot of key areas for the first time in a long time. And if you think about what was lacking last year, it was addressed in free agency, and not only by one player, but by four players in some areas. Depth is so key in baseball today. And then having somebody emerge like a (Mike) Yastrzemski or (Donovan) Solano, wow. So if I said to Farhan, ‘Hey, you’ve got to win 90 games,’ then you’d probably make a dumb decision by signing two names that are going to kill you in four, five or six years. I trust that when our fans see young, exciting players coming up, that will create engagement and they’ll buy into what we’re building.

Even if baseball operations is able to maneuver without undue influence from ownership or other business elements of the franchise, will you be hands-on when it comes to meeting with a marquee free agent? How front facing do you plan to be in your role?

It goes back to our earlier conversation: How do you make somebody accountable if you’re overriding or influencing decisions? I’m going to ask questions, I’m going to try to learn, I’m going to ask for input as I go along. But this is somebody who has built up a lot of trust in a short period with the organization. It’s separation of church and state on that. When it comes to free agents, if it helps move the needle or break a tie, and somebody says, ‘Well this other club sent their control person. We need ours there.’ Then I’m happy to get on a plane and meet with anybody any time if it helps the Giants. It’s as simple as that. Same thing with (on-field ceremonies). I’m not hiding in the shadows here. If that’s what you do in this role, I’m fully open to doing that. But I’m not seeking to do that, and we also have Larry Baer, who has a heck of a history here and has done a tremendous job. I don’t want to diminish his visibility or Farhan’s. And then we’ve got a senior executive team, many of them here 25-plus years, and I’d love for them to do some of that, too. To me, it’s about making everyone more visible in those roles. I’ll do whatever I’m asked to do if it helps the Giants, period.

Reflecting on Larry Baer, are you satisfied by the steps he’s taken following his suspension by MLB for the domestic altercation involving his wife in 2019?

Yes, I am. He’s taken all the appropriate steps.

Was it your idea to put the names on the back of the home jerseys?

It was the fans. They’ve been asking for it so it’s responding to what fans want and I think that leads into the discussion on competitiveness and changes within baseball. We have to be responsive. You could say the uniform is clean and nostalgic and protects the integrity of the Giants’ history by not having the name on it. But if your fans want the name on it, we need to make changes.

That’s consistent with how I look at where baseball is today with respect to some of what’s happened to the game and made it a little less interesting than it used to be. The shift and analytics and record home runs and record strikeouts are not as exciting and I think we can do a lot to bring back the old game with more balls in play. In 10 years, I think it’s gone from having a ball in play every 2 1/2 minutes to every 3 1/2 minutes. Despite what we’ve tried to do to shorten the game, it’s still three hours-plus. Now, I think it’s a beautiful game and a great game. I don’t want to sound like I think otherwise. But like any business, you have to be open to change, and for my involvement with the other owners, there is more openness to change now than there ever has been. The big goal is we’ve got to get Millennials more engaged with baseball and there are a lot of things we’re putting on the table right now that we’ll be thoughtful about. We won’t just install changes. We’re going to get player buy-in first, we’re going to study it with analytics, but we’re going to make changes that I think will get the game back to a more action-oriented sport that we’re all used to.

What specific changes would you support?

The shift is one we all talk about, right? The way you beat the shift is to use launch angle and drive a ball out of the park. That’s become the game. So that’s one area, whether it’s requiring two infielders to the left of second base or four infielders on the dirt. There are several ways to do this. And all of it has to be agreed upon by the Players Association, but things like pitch clocks to speed up the game, limiting pickoff attempts — there are a lot of things we can do to get steals back in the game, to get bunts back, to get action back, doubles, triples, balls in play. All of that is being studied on a very serious level and will be tested in the minor leagues in the year ahead. If you look at the changes we made last year, there was a lot of hesitation to put a runner at second base in extra innings. It had close to a 70 percent approval rate in the first year. People liked it. The seven-inning doubleheaders, people were OK with that. Because baseball is such a data-driven game, because the statistics are so important, there’s going to be resistance to any tweaking or changing. That’s part of the beauty of baseball. It’s America’s game and not much has changed over time. But when you look at what other sports have done — just look at the 3-point line in basketball — they’ve been willing to completely change the game. And today, there’s much more openness to making tweaks that will end up with more balls in play and probably a shorter game. In today’s environment, a three-hour, 10-minute game is a long time to ask someone to sit through.

What sense do you have about upcoming negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement? How would you assess the chances of a work stoppage? As one of the newer control people, do you plan to take a backseat to longtime club owners, or will you play an active role in negotiations?

I’m optimistic. It’s probably going to be messy, but I think we’ll end up with an agreement that is good for the players and for baseball. And again, as someone new, I’m in a position where I can ask a lot of questions. I’m on the phone and I’m picking the brains of other owners. I’m doing a lot of listening and I’ll continue to do so — until I hear something that I don’t agree with or something that isn’t good for the Giants.

There would appear to be a notable level of skepticism from the union, and also many fans, that owners are playing up short-term financial pain while franchise values keep rising. What would you say in response to that skepticism?

I do believe we need to do a better job earning the trust of players and being more transparent. But I can tell you the losses are very real and have a significant impact. The only way you can gain from your franchise value is to sell the franchise. Otherwise, you’re either diluting your ownership by bringing in new partners or you’re borrowing more money. That’s the reality of what’s happening right now.

Does the sport have a fundamental problem when a number of teams each year show no hesitation in stripping down and tanking? Does it bother you that some teams are not making an earnest effort to compete, especially when the Giants, even at their low points in recent years, have not gone all the way backwards — and all the while, are subsidizing non-competitive teams through revenue sharing?

I’d rather not address that one right now. It’s controversial. I’d just say, and you made your point, but in the last 20 years, 14 teams have won the World Series. And no back-to-back winners. That’s unlike any other major sports league. So we are doing something right in terms of teams having a chance every year and not just the big-revenue teams. I think there is balance, that much I’ll say. But I won’t talk about the other thing because it looks self-serving for us to complain about that.

Lightning round time: DH in the National League?

Yes.

Expanded postseason?

Yes.

Expansion?

No opinion, but leaning towards no.

Will there be a sustainable long-term home for the A’s in the Bay Area?

Call John (Fisher).

Favorite all-time Giant?

Ooh. That’s … well, I’d say Buster. Well, this era, Buster. I gotta go with Willie Mays. Willie’s the greatest.

Favorite moment?

The Ishikawa home run, and I was at the Pittsburgh wild card game (in 2014) when (Brandon) Crawford hit the grand slam. That was a great moment. And I would say the other moment was when Sergio Romo threw the fastball after five straight sliders (to strike out Miguel Cabrera clinch the World Series) in Detroit. That was just a beautiful moment.

(Photo: Edmond So / South China Morning Post via Getty Images)