The Athletics and manager Bob Melvin have agreed to a one-year extension, the team announced this afternoon. Melvin is now under contract through 2019, joining executive vice president of baseball operations Billy Beane and general manager David Forst. He’d previously been under contract through the completion of the 2018 season, so this new agreement will prevent him from entering the 2018 campaign as a dreaded “lame duck” manager with just a year to go on his deal.
Melvin, 55, is wrapping up his 14th season as a Major League manager and his seventh at the helm for the Athletics. He’s previously managed the Mariners (2003-04) and Diamondbacks (2005-09), and as the A’s point out in their press release, he’s one of just seven managers in baseball history to win Manager of the Year honors in both the American League (2012 with the A’s) and the National League (2007 with the Diamondbacks). Overall, Melvin has a career record of 1028-1040 as a manager, though he’s presided over a number of A’s teams that haven’t necessarily been in “win-now” mode.
The 2017 season was one of those years, as Oakland entered the season with a number of stopgaps among its position-player ranks as the team waited for the arrival of a wave of young talent. Veterans like Trevor Plouffe, Rajai Davis, Stephen Vogt and Yonder Alonso eventually gave way to an impressive bumper crop of young talent, however — a group that the A’s hope will form the nucleus of their next contending club.
Corner infielders Matt Olson and Matt Chapman have made the biggest impact in the Majors (Olson with his bat, Chapman more with his glove), but the team has also welcomed the likes of Franklin Barreto, Ryon Healy, Bruce Maxwell and Jaycob Brugman into more prominent roles.
Melvin will be tasked with helping to hone the skills of that potential core group, as Oakland looks to put its current 73-85 record in the rear-view mirror in future seasons and return to contention in what was one of Major League Baseball’s most top-heavy divisions in 2017.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Thanks Connor. Nice concise article. We need more that get to the point, rather than the “analysis” and excess opinions.
The info is typically always given in the first paragraph. Meaning you don’t have to read past that in other articles. If that’s a serious complaint u may have some issues to work out
“I want less content.”
With breaking news, we pretty much always post the first sentence in the name of timeliness and then fill in the rest of the content.
If you are concerned about Bob Melvin, you should discount prices on furniture at Bob’s Furniture. HaBOB habeeb habeebo nehoy nehoy yeebershwargen
Boyum, you crazy?
It was definitely a good idea to bring Melvin back. Young teams like the A’s need continuity.
“He could even be the mayor of Oakland one day!”
bring in the lefty
“Bring in the lefty”
I’m not sure anyone needs continual 75-win seasons, which the A’s organization seems perfectly content with.
The A’s are never in “win-now” mode because their GM is a stooge who sells his best young players the moment they get good.
If he had more money to work with he probably wouldn’t do that though. So blame the owners, their stadium situation and playing second fiddle to the Giants in their share of the Bay Area market.
If and when they get their new stadium, BB should be held accountable. The fact that his team at times has made the pläyoffs has been remarkable. Same with Tampa. Going to college almost 40 years ago, i loved that ballpark. Cheap available prime seats and the first premium stadium sound system. Too bad i think it’s pretty much the same today…
He’s a beast! Definitely moving In the right direction to get him on board. He’ll turn them around
Love it. This is the Manager the A’s have to have no doubt. Knowledgeable and affable with his players, BoMel is just an incredible skipper. Hopefully, the young core of players can now pan out for 2018 and beyond and if given the necessary resources to Billy Bean then he can pull one of those incredible trades, bold or whatever…
BoMel??? Please tell me that’s not a thing.