Brad Ausmus has turned down an offer to return for a second season as the bench coach of the Athletics, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post (Twitter link). According to Heyman, the former big league catcher is looking to find a front office position instead.
Ausmus only spent a year in Oakland. The A’s tabbed the 53-year-old as bench coach in January, giving first-year skipper Mark Kotsay an experienced hand. Ausmus has five years of big league managerial experience, four with the Tigers (2014-17) and a lone season as an Angel (2019). Kotsay will now have to look elsewhere for his top lieutenant heading into his second year as Oakland skipper.
It was a predictably rough season for the A’s, who tore the MLB roster down the preceding winter to cut payroll. Oakland finished an AL-worst 60-102, a record besting only that of the Nationals. It’s certainly not the way Kotsay would’ve hoped to start his managerial career, although he and the front office were aware heading into the season there’d be plenty of growing pains with a mostly unproven roster.
Ausmus, meanwhile, seems set to land in a baseball operations department somewhere over the coming months. He’s worked in the Padres’ and Angels’ front offices in the past, so a transition back to the executive ranks wouldn’t be unfamiliar.
One of the worst managers of all time.
I think Nevin is trying to win that title.
prov356;
Well…..
Terry Francona thinks highly of him….but you probably know best.
After all, what would that Francona guy know about managing an MLB team?
Samuel – You’re a little snippy about a sarcastic comment about the Angels manager.
not for nothing Sam but Tito showed an alarming lack of judgement when it came to Micky Calloway so I’m not sure saying Francona thinks highly of Ausmus is as much of a compliment as you think.
acell10;
Mickey was a fantastic pitching coach that was the primary person that turned Cleveland into a pitching factory. A manger can’t follow 50 grown adults that he oversees around every day regarding their personal life.
And this is not about Ausmus.
I responded to the fact that people here bad rap a player / manager / FO person / owner with no specifics because they don’t like him/her. Once in a while a poster will even admit that. The individual they’re attacking has spent their entire life getting to where they are putting up with crap and learning from it. If someone wants to bad rap a pro, that’s fine. I do it. But I give reasons why…..other than he pulled a pitcher that I thought he shouldn’t have or something similar. Those people deal daily with dozens of situations that no one here knows anything about.
So now you’re excusing sexual harassment because Callaway helped turn Cleveland into a pitching factory as well as excusing Francona from something he knew about and defended Callaway over? That’s rich and pretty disgusting.
@Samuel, normally I absolutely agree with your school of thought here. Seeing as they re the professionals and its easy for an outside observer to pass judgment in hindsight. With Ausmus tho, I saw far too often him making mind boggling moves as Tigers manager. One of the easier tasks of a MLB manager is actually the on field decisions, most are pretty easy to decide and many fans even know what u do in a given situation. With Ausmus tho he regularly would go against the grain and try and reinvent the wheel. I can’t think of a specific call off top of my head so I ll use a recent example by someone else. Schwarber’s 2 strike bunt attempt. Even had it worked we know it was absolutely wrong and the risk far outweighed the reward. Those are the types of calls that happened far to often with Ausmus. He does seem to have a great mind for the game, sometimes tho people need to b more patient and less creative. The game has been played a long time and there’s a large sample size that backs what moves are right in most situations.
and Gardenhire, Hinch and Madden (Angels) did so much better? All failed after replacing Ausmus, so thinking it’s just the Tigers and Angels in general are the problem, not Ausmus or the other mangers
@Tahoe, not saying the other managers did not have their flaws. However none of those mentioned had a team like Ausmus had in 2014. But that’s not the point I was getting at. The point was making basic decisions that have become rules of thumb in the game, Ausmus regularly went against the grain on these decisions. The game has been played a long time, some things just work that’s why they are done. Ausmus regularly tried to b crafty and smarter than the game. That is the issue I have with him.
Lol, no. Bryan Price says hello.
So far none of the managers that have replaced him have done any better. Maybe just bad teams and owners
Ausmus is very knowledgeable. No matter Billy Beane and his top lieutenant David Forst will find a suitable bench coach Its still a tremendous lost for the young A’s…
Its not a “tremendous loss” – rebuilding teams literally cannot have any of those until they’re about to contend then they lose a key player. Bench coach 2-3 years out? No.
Calling what the A’s are doing “rebuilding” is being overly kind. Cheap and sucking come immediately to mind as more accurate.
They’re doing what any of us would do before moving to another state- donating a bunch of stuff to make room in the U-Haul. Except instead of Goodwill, they’re donating to the other 29 teams in the league.
Boston is taking their kidneys, Yankees are taking their hearts…
I swear that my manager is the worse of all time.
The A’s last offseason only signed 2 FAs on $1M/1 year deals. That should be against the rules. We need a salary floor way more than a ceiling.
Suggest a ceiling/floor to the union. I’m sure they’ll see the merits to it
So, teams are forced to overpay for underperforming free agents they don’t want or need to make you happy?
Yes dummy, underperforming stars are much better than non-MLB level players. Grow up.
There is a salary floor, league minimum x 26.
That is too low, that is my point. Smart cookie you are.
The reason why the A’s haven’t won isn’t because of salary floor or ceiling. Spending doesn’t equal winning. You’re argument is stupid. For nearly a decade the dodgers and Yankees were one two in spending and they met in the World Series a grand total of 0 times. Stop suggesting stupid things the mlbpa doesn’t even want let along mlb, get in reality.
I guess beggers really can be choosers
Only their pitching coach did a good job. They need new coaches all the way around. Too many players failed to produce on a team. not one young hitter had a break out year. You usually have 1 player break out with that many young players on a team but other than some pitchers all the hitters failed badly.
A’s pitchers gave up the most HR in MLB and they play in a pitcher’s park…how did Emerson do a “good job”?
Look at what he had to work with? A complete new staff with mostly inexperience pitchers. FYI the did not give up the most HR in MLB 3 other teams gave up more. Same ERA as Red sox pitching staff. They ended up with the 23rd best pitching staff.
IMO, Billy Beane and his staff have been together for a long time now. They tear it down; rebuild with youngsters they get in trade for their decent players that they can’t afford to pay; work with them for a few years; the players get better; add a couple of more guys and spend maybe 2 years in contention when the first wave of players are about to hit free agency. The franchise cannot afford them because the fans aren’t showing up or watching them on TV (to get a decent contract), so they start the process all over again.
I’m tired of watching it from afar. Have to assume that those in the FO are tired of the drill, but the money’s good.
I once explained here what the difference is between what the cash-strapped Rays do and what the A’s do – which allows the Rays to be competitive for sustained periods. Naturally 6-8 posters misinterpreted what I wrote (I broke it down as simply as I could) and attacked me. So I’ll just say that the A’s could do better if they changed their approach,
As for Mr. Ausmus – he’s an incredibly knowledgeable and bright baseball lifer. He was a team leader for most of his career. Unfortunately he hasn’t done particularly well as a coach or manager, and does in fact belong in an MLB FO. I was surprised when he took the coaching position.
The A’s need to change their hitting approach. Their hitters come up here and become worse than before but can go to other teams and be solid players. Their concept is swing for the fences instead of hitting for average.
I was too. He always said he would never be a bench coach. Guess he gave it a try and realized he was right all along.
Even the coaches want out
Didn’t even know he was the bench coach lol.
Keep up! lol
Hey, remember when Pizza Mike handed the keys of a Ferrari to Brad Ausmus and he immediately drifted it into a Little Caesars?
Pepperidge Farm remembers…
That happened??
Even Maddon couldn’t right that losing ship, and same for Hinch and Gardenhire w/ the Tigers.
Ausmus is a very smart guy. He deserves a better gig than the train wreck A’s, and he’ll probably get one.
Padres bound.
Makes sense as he worked in FO before, and he lives in the area.
Stephen Vogt
Stephen Vogt!!!!
Stephen Vogt!!!
Brad Ausmus should look for a college head coaching job. I don’t know if he’s interested in recruiting and not being in the sports pages.
He, sadly, is not a good major league manager. He just is not.
How can you say he should look for a college job if you don’t know if he’s interested in recruiting and not being in the sports pages? Or do you often post things that make no sense?
Ummm….it means he might be interested in a college coaching job if he doesn’t mind recruiting and he doesn’t mind not being in the sports pages.
College coaches have to work their butts off to find players and they don’t get any press.
Ausmus would make a good college coach because he’s still relatively young and he’s got a lot of MLB experience. That could translate into a reliable college manager. He’s not a good MLB manager.
Is that clear enough for you?
I can assure you media attention is not important to him.
He has too much to offer in pro baseball w/ all of his experience. I think FO is a good fit for him