According to several baseball sources, the San Francisco Giants’ managing general partner and CEO Bill Neukom will not return in that role for 2012.  Giants current president and COO, Larry Baer, will assume all CEO duties when Neukom steps down.

The San Francisco Giants later confirmed by press release that Neukom will retire from his position effective December 31, 2011.

Mark Purdy of the San Jose Mercury News says that Neukom made some financial decisions that “alienated key members of the ownership group – principally because the group believed as part of Neukom’s fiduciary duties, he should have kept them better informed about his choices and actions. Instead, some of the owners first read about those decisions in the news reports.”

The tension between Neukom and 10-person Executive Committee has built over time, but reached a boiling point in the recent weeks.

Image by Tom Thai under the Creative Commons License.