Brian Sabean is back in the Bronx, and he’s looking for another championship.
The 66-year-old rejoined the Yankees organization on Tuesday as an executive advisor to senior vice president and general manager Brian Cashman. Sabean spent the last 30 seasons with the Giants, but he began his pro baseball career with New York in 1985 as a scout before serving as the director of scouting from 1986-1990 and the vice president of player development and scouting from 1990-1992.
"It's a little bit emotional and overwhelming, somewhat of a strange twist of fate after 30 years to rejoin the organization that I started in. A lot of memories are flashing back,” Sabean said on a Zoom call before reflecting on influential Yankees mentors like Gene Michael and Bill Livesey. “It’s humbling. At my age, I really appreciate being wanted and needed, and as I talked to Cash, things became organic as to how I could help the organization.
"I'm all in. I'll do anything to help the Yankees win another World Series."
While Sabean was never a Yankees employee during the club’s late-1990s dynasty, he has received credit for scouting and helping to develop some of the players on those championship teams, including Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Bernie Williams, Andy Pettitte and Jorge Posada. Sabean downplayed his part on Tuesday, calling himself a “link in the chain.”
Sabean joined the Giants in 1993 as assistant to the general manager and vice president of scouting player personnel. He became San Francisco’s senior vice president of player personnel in 1995 and was promoted to general manager in 1996. He added other top leadership positions to his title along the way, serving as the Giants’ senior vice president and general manager from 1996-2015 and their executive vice president of baseball operations from 2015-2018.
San Francisco reached the postseason eight times and won five division titles, four National League pennants and three Fall Classics with Sabean at the helm. He spent the last four years as an executive vice president while working on strategic initiatives as a senior advisor and evaluator.
With an array of roles on his résumé and three decades of experience, Sabean said he hopes to be a “utility tool” for Cashman, and involvement in the draft process sounds like an expected duty. Sabean added that being on the East Coast appealed to his family due to a private matter. A move to Florida, where the Yankees have their Tampa complex, is in the cards.
Sabean also said he hoped to be “more involved” in San Francisco than he was in his most recent role under the club’s current regime. His contract with the Giants expired on October 31.
“After 30 years of a very eventful stay in San Francisco, I don’t know how much more I could have given or contributed,” Sabean said. “So this is very exciting – to the point of me being nervous – as well as invigorating.”
More must-reads: