The Oakland Athletics aren’t in the playoffs after three consecutive prior appearances, but they aren’t wavering in their support of front office executives Billy Beane and David Forst.
The team announced Monday that Beane was promoted from general manager to executive vice president of baseball operations, while Forst will move up to take over the GM post.
Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle weighed in on what the news means:
Only four clubs had a lower payroll than Oakland in 2015, per Spotrac, which has always been the case during Beane’s lengthy tenure facilitating the Athletics’ personnel decisions. Also serving as minority owner of the A’s, it was only a matter of time before Beane was given a gaudier label for the pioneering work he’s done.
Beane spoke recently about how coming up short as a player helped shape his philosophy as an executive, per CIO‘s Thor Olavsrud:
I’m a former player, allegedly, if you saw my stats. I was judged the traditional way: the eye test. I was measured by skills that weren’t really relevant to playing the game.
I was a misjudged asset in my own career. Then the whole world opened up to me. [Sabermetrics] turned the world and the game into a mathematical equation that was easy to understand. And now sports teams are trying to hire the same people that NetSuite wants to hire, that Google wants to hire.
That type of visionary, forward-thinking has helped the A’s stay ahead of the curve as sabermetrics have grown in prominence in recent years. It’s also helped keep the team competitive despite a dearth of financial resources other big-market teams enjoy to bring in top-tier talent.
Forst has been a staple in Oakland’s power structure, serving as an assistant GM for 12 of his 16 years with the organization. According to the team’s official website, Forst has helped Beane with all player acquisitions and evaluations as well as contract negotiations.
As commendable a job as Beane and Forst have done to date, unless the A’s have more money to play with, it’s hard to envision them achieving the ultimate goal of a World Series crown. This offseason ought to bring about numerous roster changes after the team posted a 68-94 record in 2015.
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