Before making a single decision, Zack Minasian already made history.
When the San Francisco Giants hired Minasian to serve as the team’s new general manager, Zack and his brother, Perry, the general manager of the Los Angeles Angels, became the first siblings in Major League history to simultaneously hold the title. As kids, the Minasian brothers — Zack, Perry, Calvin, Rudy — played their own version of fantasy baseball, drafting teams under very specific constraints. Which brother could craft the best team exclusively composed of players from the AL West? What about a team of only left-handed hitters? There was a salary cap, too.
For Zack and Perry, fantasy evolved into reality.
Zack understands the magnitude of what he and his brother accomplished, but seldom allows it to come into focus during his day-to-day life. For one, he has a ball club to build alongside Buster Posey, a franchise icon turned president of baseball operations. There’s also the matter of taking care of his newborn son, Nico. Since December, sleep has been at a premium. But on the rare occasion that Minasian steps back and takes stock, he thinks of the people who made his life possible.
He thinks of his parents, who allowed him into the world of baseball at a young age.
He thinks of his grandparents, who helped lay the foundation for a life in America.
He thinks of his great-grandparents, who survived and escaped unspeakable horrors.
“If it wasn’t for the courage of so many people before me,” Minasian said, “I have no idea if I would be anywhere close to here.”…
The Minasians are a tight-knit, baseball family. Minasian’s father, Zack Minasian Sr., served as the Texas Rangers’ clubhouse manager from 1988-2009. Zack and Perry are general managers. Calvin is currently the clubhouse manager for the Atlanta Braves. Their collective standing in the game would not have been possible without the sacrifices of those who preceded them.
Six of Minasian’s eight great-grandparents fled Europe to escape the Armenian Genocide. There is no official death toll, but estimates generally range from 600,000 to 1.5 million. Minasian recalls being told that one of his great-grandfathers witnessed his father’s a severed head rolling into their house. To flee the brutality, Minasian’s ancestors sought new lives in America.
Hagop Ipjian, his mother’s paternal grandfather, became embedded into the community of Evanston, Illinois. In addition to starting a successful dry cleaning business called “Perfecto Cleaners,” Ipjian helped build the St. James Armenian Church. Ipjian’s son — and Minasian’s grandfather — John earned a Purple Heart for fighting in World War II. John developed a love for baseball because of his grandchildren; on one occasion, John asked Zack why the Toronto Blue Jays (Perry worked for them as a scout at the time) acquiring an aging Mark Buehrle.
He’s old, isn’t he? Why is Perry signing Mark Buehrle?
Zack understands the stark discrepancy between the challenges he faces versus those of his grandparents and great-grandparents. The fire to build a winning ballclub in San Francisco rages on a daily basis. But the struggles that his lineage endured provided him with perspective.
“When I think about my grandparents, my great-grandparents and the sacrifices they made, I’m sure they would be proud of the position that we’ve been able to take,” Minasian said. “More than anything, I hope they’re proud of who I am as a husband, a father, a brother and what the community means to me.”
…
Edward Minasian, the son of Kevork Minasian and Yagsa Cholakian, was working at the legendary Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles when he met Tommy Lasorda. At the time, Lasorda was managing the Dodgers — not Los Angeles, but Ogden, the franchise’s rookie-level affiliate.
Edward and Lasorda developed a friendship, so much so that Lasorda requested Edward’s son, Zack Minasian Sr., spend a summer in Ogden and manage the clubhouse. Zack Sr. was 16. Despite his youth and inexperience, he spent the summer of 1968 running the Ogden Dodgers’ clubhouse, meeting future major-leaguers Steve Garvey, Bobby Valentine, Bill Buckner and Tom Paciorek.
Two decades later, Zack Sr. was living in Chicago with his wife, Barbara, and four kids when he received a call to become the visiting clubhouse manager for the Texas Rangers. Valentine, the former Ogden Dodger, was the Rangers’ manager.
Zack Sr. allowed his kids to join him in the clubhouse but only if they did chores such as cleaning kitchens, shining shoes, scrubbing toilets and washing jocks. He compensated his children for their work, but the real payment for his baseball-obsessed kids — Zack Jr. included — were the stories.
The laundry list of players that entered the younger Zack’s realm included Ken Griffey Jr., Cal Ripken Jr. and Cal Ripken Sr., Frank Thomas, Kirby Puckett, Joe Carter, George Brett and so many others. For no particular reason, he remembered being scared of Dennis Eckersley and Carlton Fisk.
Minasian also remembers watching Albert Belle take soft toss in the middle of the clubhouse, unfurling “angry hacks” and producing a distinctly loud sound — a sound that let him know that the majors were not in his future.
“When you’re in there, you learn pretty quick, ‘I don’t think I’m going to be able to do that,’” Minasian said.
It was during these formative years that Minasian developed a relationship with Doug Melvin, the Rangers’ general manager from 1995-2001. When Melvin took over as the Milwaukee Brewers’ general manager in 2002, he offered Minasian an internship. Following Minasian’s graduation from the University of Texas-Arlington, Minasian joined Milwaukee to work for the team’s scouting department.
Minasian soared through the ranks. By 27, Minasian became baseball’s youngest director of professional scouting. Minasian took on several roles during his 14 seasons with the Brewers organization, helping the team acquire the likes of Zack Greinke, Josh Hader, Carlos Gómez and newly-minted Hall of Famer CC Sabathia.
In 2019, Minasian joined the Giants as the team’s director of pro scouting. The decision was much to the chagrin of Lasorda, the Dodgers’ Hall of Fame manager who also happens to be Minasian’s godfather. Lasorda went as far as to refer to Minasian as “Benedict Arnold.”
In his first year as San Francisco’s general manager, Minasian finds himself tasked with competing with the contemporary version of Lasorda’s Dodgers in a stacked NL West. Minasian, in time, will become plenty familiar with opposing general managers and presidents of baseball operations.
There’s one GM, though, that he already knows all too well.
Zack and Perry have had their share of conversations about their teams. Given they’ve known each other all their lives, they’re both aware of their respective tells. If there’s nothing worth discussing, they can always fall back on talking about their kids.
Their great-grandparents never saw them ascend to these heights in the game. Zack knows he and Perry wouldn’t be here without them.
“I’m a product of all these people who have come before me,” Minasian said.