The Athletics announced that former big leaguer Dave Stewart has been hired as a special assistant to player development for the 2025 season. The announcement didn’t provide much detail on Stewart’s exact role but he’ll reconnect with the franchise he’s been most associated with over the years.
Now 67, Stewart pitched in the big leagues from 1978 to 1995. His best seasons were spent in Oakland. From 1987 to 1992, he made 212 starts for the A’s, allowing 3.56 earned runs per nine. That stretch included a World Series victory for the club in 1989, with Stewart being named MVP of the series. He threw a complete game shutout in game one against the Giants. An earthquake led to a 10-day delay in the series, which allowed Stewart to also start game three, surrendering three earned runs in seven innings. The A’s finished the sweep the next day.
Stewart would go on to join the Blue Jays for the 1993 and 1994 seasons, winning another World Series in the first of those campaigns with Toronto. He returned to the A’s in 1995, in what would eventually turn out to be his final season as a player.
He then moved into his post-playing days with the A’s. He served as assistant to general manager Sandy Alderson in 1996, though he bounced around after that, working in various roles for all kinds of employers. He took front office and/or coaching roles with the Padres, Jays and Brewers. He founded the Sports Management Partners agency. He was hired by the Diamondbacks to be general manager and held that job for about two years, from September of 2014 to October of 2016.
As of a few years ago, Stewart was part of a group that was trying to get an expansion MLB franchise in Nashville. A few months ago, it was reported that he was no longer a part of that group, but that a different group he was leading was trying to buy the White Sox.
It’s unclear what stage those ownerships pursuits are at right now, but it seems Stewart will circle back to the A’s. The franchise is now in an interim period, as they plan to play in West Sacramento for the next three seasons as they build a new stadium in Las Vegas to be their new permanent home. During this period of upheaval for the franchise, as they move on from one fanbase and look to build a new one from scratch, Stewart will come back as a familiar face and presumably impart some wisdom on the club’s younger players.
Wise baseball man. Great guy to have in your organization in any capacity.
lol he tanked the dbacks when he was running the show – hopefully he is better as a special assistant
Yeah didn’t pretty much everything he did in Arizona turn out to be a disaster?
Go revisit his Dansby Swanson disaster of a trade; there are much more competent people to have running an org.
And one of the worst General Managers in baseball history.
On the surface, his front office record is sketchy, but we certainly don’t have all of the facts either.
What I remember about the guy is that my Phils had him, couldn’t do anything with him and released him. The next year after that morphed into the peak of his pitching career with the Athletics.
Dave Duncan
The fact is he was not successful.
@skenes @rey
One of the worst of all time? He inherited a team that was awful but went from 67 wins to 79 wins back to 60 something wins and then the year after up to 90 something wins a year later without much of a turnover other than the manager. As for Swanson, didn’t he draft him in his 2nd year as GM? As for the trade, is it his fault a 24-year-old stud of a pitcher with 4 years of success (Shelby Miller) turned into a pumpkin immediately after being traded? Seems like a sorry leash being given. I promise you there are dozens of other GMs, many of which somehow continue to get jobs despite poor results. Anyway, he’s a special assistant, not “running an organization.” As a successful big leaguer, maybe he’s equipped to perform other duties other than as a GM.
is it his fault a 24-year-old stud of a pitcher with 4 years of success (Shelby Miller) turned into a pumpkin
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Yes. Miller had a nice ERA, but his K/W was terrible 1.74, and his K-BB% even worse. Of 102 pitchers with 150 or more innings, Miller was #96 in K-BB%.
@Joe
and baseball is filled with starters who struggled with control early in their careers but blossomed into all-star caliber pitchers. He was acquired in his 3rd season at age 24. Maybe they thought they could fix him? my point is that every GM has a bad trade and he has his in his very brief career. That doesn’t mean he couldn’t do better if given another chance, nor did it mean he can’t be helpful in his current role in player development.
Maybe they thought they could fix him? my point is that every GM has a bad trade
=======================
No doubt about that, but any trade that starts with “maybe they could fix him”, is likely to end in failure. Inciarte had a 5.0 bWAR the previous year, and Swanson the overall 1/1.
It reminds me of the Kazmir/Zambrano trade, when the NYM pitching coach said he could fix Zambrano in two weeks.
Yeah, but wasn’t there a guy who was a total hack of a starting pitcher who ended up as the ONLY UNANIMOUSLY player voted into the HOF because he was so great at pitching one inning (mainly the 9th or later) with a 1-3 run lead. I know most of you won’t see the relativity of this comment but some of you will.
In other words, you are giving Dave Stewart excuses that could be done for other horrible executives of the last 30 years?
I promise you the dozens of other GMs would also be considered one of the worst GMs of all time. Dave Stewart is among them no matter how hard you want to cape up for his dismal performance.
Welcome to the Sacramento A’s!
Good baseball guy. But he was oit if his element in AZ.
Nope
Dave Stewart always looks like he’s mean-muggin’ (especially his playing days) but actually he has a really high voice and a super nice guy lol.
Does his high voice squeak like David Beckham?
Like he’s talking after huffing down a helium balloon.
Or Ivankas hubby
Not with the Dbacks
One of the most incompetent exec to have ever been given a front office job; then and now.
Is he like a George Constanza with rage issues?
Why? Does he have compromising photos?
Does this portend a Memphisian moment?!?!
Why Memphian? I do not understand
Dave Stewart was leading the conglomerate that was trying to get a team to Memphis… so is that still his intent or is he happily onboard with the Las Vegas plan?
Right. That was Nashville. Nashville to Memphis is about the same as Oakland to Fresno.
Side note: I was really hoping for the Nashville A’s over Las Vegas. I could make a 200 mile drive on a regular basis
Was he pushing for Nashville? My bad!
Oh no. Somebody needs to sign Shelby Miller ASAP
Shelby you need some cash bro? Dave is back!
Stewart was great in his day. Glad to see him working for the A’s
“The franchise is now in an interim period, as they plan to play in West Sacramento for the next three seasons as they build a new stadium in Las Vegas to be their new permanent home”
Are we just pretending the A’s will stay in Las Vegas now because that seems highly unlikely based on past history.
Philadelphia > Kansas City > Oakland > Sacramento > Las Vegas
They do seem to be the Elizabeth Taylor of Major League Baseball teams…
Which is why their arrangement with the Las Vegas Stadium Authority includes a signed Non-Relocation Agreement which binds the team to LV for 30 years. As does the lease which they signed. After that, they’re free to go. So, if they stick around for 54 seasons, as they did in Philadelphia, or 57 as they did in Oakland, nobody will feel cheated.
Nashville next?
Barn storming team with no home games. Like they used to have in the old days.
Dave Stewart is 67 so he probably won’t be able to do much damage to a mlb FO much longer. Although, Reinsdorf seems to really want to prop Stewart and LaRussa up in their twilight years.
Ol Smoke really is a good baseball guy. But he’s woefully out of his element with decision making capacity. He’s an input guy. He knows the bump. He relates to players. Leave him there..leave him alone.
So does that mean his efforts to buy the White Sox with his millionaire group fell through?
If so, good. His ownership group would have sucked too…
Yeah all a hoax it would seem, aligned with mean old sleepy drunk Tony.
looks pretty special in that pic
But he does check a few of the boxes.
If he ends up buying a team or purchasing a new franchise, is he still able to hold this position with Oakland/Sacramento/Las Vegas?
Buying a team with what coins?
The article said he was part of some group trying to get an expansion team in Nashville and he was trying to purchase the White Sox.
No. Sherman the Royals owner had to divest himself of his Cleveland shares.
Meh. He’s no Jack McDowell
Will be a crafty but deceptive guy to trade with. Would he lie to you?
Major League Baseball Teams can choose to hire Dave Stewart, Goose Gossage etc as pitching coaches if they wish. Many people don’t realize that the Roger Beshens Football Slider has become popular in MLB and that’s the type of slider being taught now. I can go to Gossage and ask him to share his knowledge and experience with the younger pitchers but he needs to teach them the Roger Beshens Football Slider and explain how to shape the pitch. This way he can help pitchers learn how to improve using metrics. Roger Beshens thought deserving ex ML pitchers would benefit from his information, instead young people with connections gained advantages from his information and definitely didn’t recognize Roger Beshens contributions when they were deserved.
And that’s why we all celebrate the Pete Woodworth Football Slider. He’s a genius!
Pete, Matt Blake, Ethan Katz etc are all teaching the Roger Beshens Football slider after it had already been released. They did not start a Football Slider revolution like Roger Beshens did in May 2018.
If they had known about it before May 2018 they would have not only taught it but their teams would have embraced it.
In November 2018 Tom Tango a MLB SR Data Architect reached out to Roger Beshens acknowledging the Roger Beshens Football Slider. That says a lot.
Roger, that was 7 years ago. You have like 38 followers on YouTube. If you were going to get credit for the football slider it would’ve happened by now.
@The
So you mean, a former big league pitcher that won 168 mlb games, 3 WS, 2 ALCS MVP and a WS MVP that struggled in the early part of his career then turned into one of the most dominant pitchers in a 8-10 year span has nothing to offer to an organizational farm system or even mlb squad about, I don’t know, PITCHING wouldn’t be very helpful? I think a lot of teams would love to have someone like him involved in the nurturing of all of their young pitchers. Why so anti- Stewart? I bet you there’s not a single organization that wouldn’t want him involved in pitcher deve on some levels
and I bet you there’s 250 mlb coaches, roving instructors and special assistants that don’t have half the accolades, experience or wisdom that he has, limited to being a pitcher or simply a good professional.
@The
Two different roles, and I’m pretty sure most would see that as being an obvious distinction.
Like Ted Williams’ stint as a manager. Or the time the White Sox hired both Early Wynn and Lou Brock at the same time to be radio analysts. None of those ended very well
@The
You’re assuming that he had no other offers to do anything at all. Maybe he is financially secure and is simply taking a position for the team he loves, not because he’s broke and needs a job. The industry is filled with guys who accomplished far less than him but easily get thrown opps simply Neenah of their resume as a player. I’m not sure why you think he is desperate or that 3 meh years as a first-time GM might hamper him from lithe jobs or the same
As Assistant GM of the Blue Jays Dave Stewart touted his big trade of acquiring Joey Hamilton from the Padres (where he was Pitching Coach) for Woody Williams, Carlos Almanzar and Peter Tucci. Then gave Hamilton an extension. That was in 1998. Stewart showed back then he wasn’t the guy, and proved it in Arizona.
He was big game pitcher. Met em briefly as kid when he was w/Dodgers, he’s cool. Met Kenny Landreaux too. They talked to us. Used to be able to get right outside batting cages door n they’d stick their heads out. Ol Dodger stadium.
“The announcement didn’t provide much detail on Stewart’s exact role”
Opening Day Starter…
“…Stewart will come back as a familiar face and presumably impart some wisdom on the club’s younger players.”
“Stay away from tranny hookers, boys!”