SAN FRANCISCO – There are few fraternities as small and exclusive as the group of 30 men who manage major league clubs. So Giants manager Bruce Bochy watched with great interest when three playoff teams – the Red Sox, Yankees and Nationals – decided to make a change on the bench despite successful seasons.

The Giants never entertained making a similar change, despite matching a $200 million payroll with a major league most 98 losses.

But you don’t endure a season like that without some staff casualties. And for Bochy, that meant having some difficult conversations before the Giants reassigned longtime pitching coach Dave Righetti, bullpen coach Mark Gardner and hitting assistant Steve Decker while also cutting loose third base coach Phil Nevin.

The Giants made Bochy available to reporters on a conference call Friday to discuss the staff shakeup – which also involves moving hitting coach Hensley Meulens to bench coach and former bench coach Ron Wotus to the third base box – and what he’s looking for as the club interviews candidates for its pitching and hitting coach vacancies.

The first question was the most important one: three weeks after his second heart ablation surgery to treat an atrial fibrillation, Bochy said he is feeling great and the 63-year-old manager is ready to take on the challenge of turning this franchise around next season.

Q: How are you feeling?

A: I’m doing great man, I really just feel terrific. All went well. I just really feel confident that they got what was causing a little issue with the a-fib thing. So I couldn’t feel better. I’m excited about how it went and I’m just down here (in San Diego) resting right now. For complete Giants coverage follow us on Flipboard.

Q: The move with Righetti, who had been the Giants’ pitching coach since 2000, came as a surprise to many people. Could you discuss the reasons for wanting to make a change?

A: First of all, I understand with the kind of season we had, you have to do everything you can to think of to dig out of the hole. Sometimes that means new players and maybe new faces on the staff. But let me say this about Rags: I can’t imagine having a better pitching coach than Dave Righetti. He was here from day one with me, and is truly one of the iconic pitching coaches in the game. We don’t get to three World Series in five years without Rags. I was blessed to have him by my side and I’m honored that he’s my friend and he’s going to be around so I can still have Rags to talk to. And he’ll be here to help the organization throughout all levels. He’s still going to have a lot of influence on what we do with the pitching here in San Francisco.

Q: What attributes or strengths do you want in the new pitching coach, and how would that person differ from what Righetti brought to the table?

A: I don’t know if it’s going to be so different. Really, we’d like for the new pitching coach to have a lot of the qualities that Dave Righetti has. The new pitching coach is going to be somebody we — and I say we, I mean the front office and myself — somebody we’ll all be comfortable with, someone we think will help continue the progress with these pitchers as far as making improvements and help us get back to where we want to go, and that’s the postseason.

Q: How difficult were these conversations with some of the staff members who were reassigned or let go?

A: Change is hard. It is. … It’s not easy. These guys have done so much for me and the organization, but like I said, it’s great to have Rags and Gardy and Deck staying to help on all levels. Wotus will go back to his old stomping grounds at third base. He’ll still do the infield positioning, just in a different position than last year. Change sometimes is good for a staff member. The unfortunate part of shuffling the deck … is Phil Nevin, I’m fortunate I had a year with him, but there just wasn’t a spot for Phil. He will manage in the major leagues one day. Great baseball guy and I enjoyed my time. It’s not easy when these changes are made. It’s going to be important for me to focus forward and figure out how to make this work.

Q: Do you expect that the new coaches you’ll add will be selected for their expertise in analytics?

A: It’s not that the staff wasn’t open minded. Some guys are maybe more into it than others. I think that’s the case with every coach, as far as how much they use analytics. We do, and the front office certainly feels like that. Some guys are maybe a little more into it than others. When this staff is all said and done, you may see maybe a little bit more of that. But I’ll see once this staff is selected. But that’s not just what we’re looking for, people who are more into analytics. I know Ronnie uses it, Bam Bam, I do. It’s not that it’s not being used.

Q: How would you sketch out the qualities you value as you interview hitting coaches?

A: That’s an area we certainly want to improve and get these guys back to who they are. Somebody who’s going to be a communicator who will hopefully have some new and fresh ideas to help make these players better. Bam Bam and Deck, they worked their tails off. I can’t thank them enough. But sometimes when (players) hear another voice, it might be something they need to get back to being a better offensive club.

Q: This World Series between the Dodgers and Astros features two organizations in which many of the day-to-day decisions that were traditionally made in the manager’s office have now become collaborative with a more analytically inclined front office having a larger say in how players are deployed. Do you expect that to happen with the Giants?

A: These discussions have been going on not just this year, I’ll go back the last couple years with where baseball is going. We have a tremendous baseball ops that provide all the analytics we need, and we try to use them. We try to stay on the cutting edge of what’s going on with the game. Like all clubs, sure, you’re seeing more of it being used and being available. So it’s become more prevalent with every club, including ours. You want to get all the information you can to make you a better club. And I’ll go back to our good years, and we used analytics. You see it in parts of our game, from the shifting to some of the stuff we’ve do with the pitching. But it’s growing and you’re looking at the two clubs that are known for it that are in the World Series. But you look at those clubs, too, and who’s out there, and it starts with talent, and they’re certainly not lacking there, as you can tell.

Q: As one of 30 major league managers, what do you make of three playoff teams making changes after successful seasons, as well as a fourth, the Cubs, gutting their staff?

A: Well, I’ll be honest, I was surprised at the changes there when you look at the success that those clubs have had. I don’t know what’s going on internally so it’s hard to make a comment on that. But from the outside looking in, I’m probably like a lot of people when you look at Boston and New York and Washington and the success they had. What I make of it is something was going on that we don’t know about. Certainly the success was there, but for some reason this year more than any other year, for managers and staff members, you see more changes than ever. This may be more of an aberration. It certainly does surprise me, the changes throughout baseball, with what’s happened on the field.