Cubs VP Jason McLeod Reportedly Interviewed for Giants GM Job Last Week

The Cubs have already lost one high-ranking member of their front office this week and it appears that another could be departing. Not long after Cubs Insider broke the news that assistant GM Shiraz Rehman is leaving Chicago to take a similar role with the Rangers, 670 The Score’s Bruce Levine reported that Jason McLeod has interviewed with the Giants for their vacant GM position.

McLeod, the Cubs’ VP of player development and amateur scouting, has been with the organization since 2011 as part of Theo Epstein’s braintrust. Along with Epstein and Jed Hoyer, McLeod had his original five-year contract extended for another half-decade late in the 2016 season. According to Levine, that deal pays “close to $1 million annually.”

McLeod has presided over a system that drafted and developed not only current Cubs like Kris Bryant, Kyle Schwarber, and Ian Happ, but also up-and-coming stars like Gleyber Torres and Eloy Jimenez who were traded away. He worked with Epstein and Hoyer during their championship days in Boston, then followed Hoyer to San Diego before the trio reunited again in Chicago.

Opportunities to leave have come up in the past, but McLeod declined to interview with the Padres in 2014 and the Twins opted for Thad Levine over McLeod and others two years later. But it seemed inevitable that the right situation would come along at some point. That might just be in San Francisco, where the Giants have decided to move in a new direction after another disappointing finish.

Brian Sabean, the Giants’ president of baseball operations, is working to replace himself and GM Bobby Evans, though whether that means one or two new hires isn’t entirely clear. Either way, McLeod’s experience and expertise appear well-suited to what San Francisco is trying to rebuild. And given their history of success and willingness to spend money, the task of turning things around isn’t necessarily Herculean.

More on this as it develops.