A brother-in-law, Roland Hemond, was also a longtime baseball executive and general manager of the Chicago White Sox and Baltimore Orioles.
The 1989 season had been a disaster on and off the field: the Reds finished 75–87 and in fifth place in a year marred by the gambling allegations against and the suspension and disbarment of manager Pete Rose.
[10] During that offseason, Quinn acquired fireballing relief pitcher Randy Myers and rookie first baseman Hal Morris.
Owner Marge Schott cut Quinn's scouting and farm system budget, then fired him at the end of the 1992 season.
[11] Two months later, Quinn became general manager of the Giants at one of the turning points in their history in the San Francisco Bay Area.
For much of the season, it appeared that the Giants were about to move to Tampa–Saint Petersburg after owner Bob Lurie agreed to sell them to Florida businessman Vince Naimoli.
But in November, the National League rejected the Tampa deal, and Lurie instead sold the Giants to a Bay Area investment group headed by Peter Magowan.
The 1993 Giants proceeded to improve by 31 games, going 103–59, Bonds won the NL Most Valuable Player Award, and attendance jumped to 2.6 million.
However, the Giants finished a game behind the Braves in the NL West and did not qualify for the postseason in the last pre-wild card full season in Major League Baseball.
His successor was assistant general manager/director of player personnel Brian Sabean, the former director of scouting of the Yankees who had followed Quinn to the Giants' organization in 1993.