San Francisco Chronicle NFL writer David White is reporting that a team source has told him that Trent Baalke has been named general manager of the San Francisco 49ers. White is working to get confirmation and I'd imagine more will come through the night. Our prior GM thread is filling up so we might as well open a new one, and this news is worthy of such a thread.
If this is in fact true it's not a surprising development. What really matters to most fans at this point is whether or not the team can get Jim Harbaugh in as the 49ers new head coach. When that shoe drops then fans can exhale with this current bit of news. As I'm looking around, Matt Maiocco has tweeted his own confirmation through an unnamed NFL source. Details might need to be worked out, but it seems safe to say your new GM is former VP of Player Personnel Trent Baalke.
The Stanford Cardinal returned to the Bay Area this evening and the race is officially on to lock him down as the next head coach of the 49ers. Tim Kawakami has been tweeting that the team would meet with Harbaugh tomorrow or shortly thereafter. The team is apparently planning to conduct their coaching interviews tomorrow with Hue Jackson and Perry Fewell among the candidates to interview. At the end of the day though it's the world's worst kept secret that the job is Harbaugh's if he wants it and they can come to the proper terms financially and power-wise.
Although the first domino has fallen, the next step is arguably the most important at this point. We'll have coverage all day tomorrow as the coaching search rolls forward.