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Beane, Forst, Owens Expected To Return To A’s Front Office In 2021

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Amidst much speculation about the future of the Athletics’ front office, the team’s chief baseball officials (executive VP of baseball operations Billy Beane, GM David Forst, and assistant GM Billy Owens) are expected to continue working in Oakland for the 2021 season, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle writes.  In addition to Slusser’s sources, A’s manager Bob Melvin intimated during a recent discussion with Slusser and other reporters that the team’s front office trio would be returning: “It looked like at the beginning of the offseason that there might be several in that group not here.  At this point, it looks like everyone will be back.”

The key factor seems to be that the proposed merger between RedBall Acquisition Corp (Beane is RedBall’s co-chair) and Fenway Sports Group LLC (the parent company of the Red Sox) doesn’t appear to be on track to get league approval before the end of the year.  Had a deal gone through, Beane would have left the A’s due to the obvious conflict of interest.  It isn’t clear when the commissioner’s office could weigh in on the merge, though as Slusser puts it, “Beane is likely to remain at the A’s helm through 2021.”

Had Beane left the team, Forst was seen as the logical candidate to take over the baseball operations department, with Owens the favorite to move up the ladder and become general manager.  That said, both Forst and Owens received interest from the Mets and Angels for their front office vacancies, with Owens interviewing for both general manager openings.  It doesn’t appear as if Forst even spoke with either team, as reports indicate he enjoys his job in Oakland.

Changes could still be coming to the A’s depending on Beane’s future business dealings, but for now, the Athletics will continue their rather remarkable front office stability.  Beane has been with the team for over 30 years and atop the front office pyramid since October 1997, Forst has been with the organization since 2000, and Owens spent five seasons as a minor league hitting coach before moving into front office work in 2003.

Managerial/Front Office Notes: White Sox, Kantrovitz, A’s, Cards

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There’s quite a lot of intrigue in the front office and managerial arenas this offseason. Let’s check in on the latest bits of information …

  • WGN broadcaster Dan Roan crafted an eyebrow-raising tweet regarding the next White Sox manager. Indications are that the organization is preparing to make a swift and dramatic decision to fill the top dugout opening. Roan hints at a forthcoming announcement that Tony La Russa will be tapped for a return run on the South Side. It’s certainly not a firm report of an imminent agreement, but Sox fans may want to keep an eye on the news wire on Thursday.
  • The Angels have a new potential target in their GM search, per Jon Morosi of MLB.com (via Twitter). The Halos have asked the Cubs to green-light a chat with Dan Kantrovitz, the current VP of scouting in Chicago. Kantrovitz, who has been with the Cubs for less than a year, could in theory be considered for the top job in Anaheim or targeted as one of two hires if the club decides to bring on both a president of baseball ops and a general manager.
  • This time last year, Kantrovitz was still with the Athletics — a team that now appears to be looking at the end of an era with the potential departure of Billy Beane. Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle addresses several elements of the situation in response to reader inquiries. Unsurprisingly, she anticipates that GM David Forst would step into Beane’s shoes in the event of the latter’s departure. Kantrovitz might’ve been in line to succeed as GM had he remained. As things stand, Slusser suggests that AGM Billy Owens stands to move up the ladder if he’s not first snatched up by another org.
  • The Cardinals are planning to trim costs in player payroll after a round of front office cuts. It turns out that the recent departures included a trio of notable former players, according to Mark Saxon of The Athletic (via Twitter). Former Cards Chris Carpenter, Jason Isringhausen, and Jim Edmonds are no longer being paid as special assistants.

A’s Rotation Options For 2021

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The Oakland A’s have grown accustomed to finding year-by-year stopgaps to fill their starting rotation. Flyball pitchers fair well in the spacious dimensions of the Coliseum, and Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations Billy Beane and General Manager David Forst apply their ballpark as an advantage by targeting under-market contact veterans like Mike Fiers, Homer Bailey, Brett Anderson, and Tanner Roark. They’re also one of the best in the game at making mid-year adjustments to keep the roster competitive.

For the first time in a while, however, they’re looking at a mostly-holdover rotation in 2021, writes Matt Kawahara of the San Francisco Chronicle. Sean Manaea, Frankie Montas, Jesus Luzardo, and Chris Bassitt are all under contract, and all four should be guaranteed rotation roles, assuming good health. Daulton Jefferies also made his debut this year, and they hope to see A.J. Puk return healthy enough to threaten for a rotation role.

Given Puk’s injury history, they might prefer to go a year leaving him in the bullpen – especially considering that’s looking like a greater need at the moment. Along with lockdown closer Liam Hendriks, relievers Joakim Soria, Yusmeiro Petit, and T.J. McFarland are heading towards free agency. Leveraging a high-impact arm like Puk in relief could be a more economical way to backfill those bullpen departures. As we noted above, the A’s have a knack for finding back-end rotation types for a reasonable fee on the free agent market. They could easily look to bring Fiers back, for instance, if he were amenable to taking a pay cut from the $8.1MM full-scale contract he was set to earn in 2020.

AL East Notes: Sanchez, Red Sox, Beane, Orioles, Blue Jays

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Gary Sanchez’s nightmarish 2020 season has turned him into a question mark for the Yankees moving forward, and the club at least considered turning the page earlier this year.  According to MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand, “the Yankees were open to the idea of trading” Sanchez back in August prior to the trade deadline.  Given how adamant GM Brian Cashman has been about Sanchez not being a trade candidate in the past, this seems like a noteworthy shift in thinking, though not an unexpected one given how badly Sanchez struggled this season.

Feinsand included this news tidbit as part of a larger piece about J.T. Realmuto’s likeliest suitors this winter, with the Yankees ranked second on that list.  Signing Realmuto would be the biggest possible way to upgrade at catcher, but it isn’t clear if the Yankees are willing (or able) to make another huge spending splash in the wake of 2020’s major revenue losses.

More from the AL East…

  • Since front office hiring negotiations aren’t usually recreated as movie scenes, it is common knowledge that the Red Sox tried to lure Billy Beane away from Oakland in 2002.  However, the Athletic’s Evan Drellich (Twitter link) reports that the Sox made a much more recent overture for Beane’s services, asking the Athletics for permission to speak with Beane just last year when the Sox were looking for a new front office boss.  Chaim Bloom ended up being hired as the Red Sox chief baseball officer, though it’s possible Bloom could have been hired to work under Beane, as Red Sox ownership wanted “a senior voice for someone more inexperienced.”  As it turned out, Bloom became the top voice in Boston’s baseball operations pyramid and Beane remained with the A’s, though Beane’s future has become the subject of speculation in recent days.
  • The Orioles are looking to replace pitching coach Doug Brocail and third base coach Jose Flores, though MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko hears that the team could look to fill the positions internally.  A source tells Kubatko that the team is “rearranging things” in the wake of the tumultuous 2020 season, and moving already-employed personnel into those coaching roles would be a way for the O’s to save money.  Beyond just the financial aspect, the Orioles are expected to be making some changes to their minor league coaching and developmental staffs as well, so internal promotions could be a part of those plans (not to mention keeping people within the organization if any of Baltimore’s farm teams are contracted).
  • The use of an alternate training site was an imperfect solution to the lack of a minor league baseball season, though some teams found some pluses to the approach.  As Laura Armstrong of the Toronto Star writes, the adjustments made by such players as Alejandro Kirk and T.J. Zeuch allowed them to contribute at the big league level and become part of the Blue Jays’ plans for 2021.  While Jays GM Ross Atkins wants to see traditional minor league ball back, Atkins said “I do feel like we were able to make some really targeted progress” with prospects at the alternate site.  The Jays plan to carry over some developmental processes from the alternate site once minor league baseball eventually resumes.

Billy Beane’s MLB Future Uncertain

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Athletics executive vice president of baseball operations Billy Beane is co-chair of RedBall Acquisition Corp., a company in talks with current Red Sox ownership, Fenway Sports Group, about a potential merger that would see RedBall take over a 25% ownership stake in the Boston franchise. Those talks are in their early stages and a deal isn’t an inevitability, but there’d be an obvious conflict of interest if the parties do eventually come to an agreement. (Beane also has an approximate 1% ownership stake in the Athletics, notes Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle).

If the potential RedBall-FSG merger were to go through, Beane would likely step down from his position with the A’s, report Jared Diamond, Joshua Robinson and Miriam Gotffried of the Wall Street Journal. Slusser hears the same, noting that the deal might be finalized by the end of the calendar year. Beane leaving the A’s wouldn’t be surprising under those circumstances, but he’s not planning to make the jump to the Red Sox front office. Rather, Beane would step away from MLB front office work altogether, per the reports, likely to pursue a position with a European soccer club. The 58-year-old has spoken about his affinity for soccer in the past, and he was part of a group that purchased English club Barnsley FC in 2017, as Eric Chesterton of MLB.com detailed at the time.

Red Sox principal owner John Henry has long had an affinity for Beane. Henry tried unsuccessfully to coax Beane out of Oakland in 2002 to take over the Red Sox baseball operations, shortly before the publication of Moneyball helped make the latter one of the most famous sports executives in history. The two men also share a passion for soccer, with Fenway Sports Group purchasing Premier League club Liverpool FC in 2010.

It’s worth reiterating that nothing is yet official between RedBall and FSG. Beane was part of the A’s season-ending media call with general manager David Forst and manager Bob Melvin last week and gave no indication he was contemplating an imminent exit, the Wall Street Journal notes. Beane has declined comment regarding his future, but one source told Slusser he might “like a new adventure.” The A’s front office was especially frustrated with ownership’s decision to institute widespread layoffs and furloughs over the summer, Slusser adds, although it’s unclear if that has any impact on Beane’s thought process.

If Beane were to step away, the A’s would unsurprisingly hand the reins to Forst, Slusser reports. The 44-year-old has been in the organization since 2000 and served as GM for the past five seasons. Forst signed a long-term extension two years ago and has longed seemed the baseball operations leader of the future in Oakland.

Red Sox Ownership Group Exploring Taking Company Public

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Fenway Sports Group LLC is in negotiations with special purpose acquisition company RedBall Acquisition Corp that would eventually see Fenway Sports (owners of the Red Sox and Liverpool FC of the Premier League) go public, Cara Lombardo and Miriam Gottfried of the Wall Street Journal report.

The proposed merger would eventually see Fenway Sports valued at $8 billion (including debt) after going public.  RedBall would spend roughly $1.575 billion to become minority partners in this overall enterprise, with Red Sox owner John Henry and his Fenway Sports Group partners retaining majority control.

As Lombardo and Gottfried put it, “the talks are in the early innings and could still fall apart,” so it could still be some time before we see any concrete news.  And, it could be that the biggest impact takes place on the soccer front rather than the baseball front, as Lombardo and Gottfried hear that a Fenway Sports/RedBall partnership could look to buy more soccer clubs around Europe.  RedBall are already the majority owners of Toulouse FC, buying the French team last July.

Perhaps the most intriguing baseball-related aspect of this deal is that longtime Athletics executive Billy Beane is RedBall’s co-chair.  (A’s minority owner Lew Wolff is also on the board.)  The other co-chair, Gerry Cardinale, also has some significant MLB ties, as Cardinale sits on the Yankees’ board and was involved in the development of the YES Network — Cardinale’s private equity firm, RedBird Capital, still owns a minority share of YES.

Should the Fenway Sports/RedBall venture go forward, it’s hard to imagine Beane would continue to remain with the A’s if he is that heavily involved in the ownership group of a rival team’s parent company.  Following the 2018 season, Beane signed a contract extension of unknown length to remain as the Athletics’ executive VP of baseball operations.  Beane also has a four percent ownership stake in the A’s, as per an earlier contract extension from back in 2005.

Athletics Announce Contract Extensions For Billy Beane, David Forst, Bob Melvin

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The Oakland A’s announced new long-term deals today for Executive VP of Baseball Ops Billy Beane, General Manager David Forst, and Manager Bob Melvin, per a team report.

Melvin’s deal will take him through 2021 at about $3.5MM per season, which puts him in the upper echelon of managers in terms of yearly salary, per Susan Slusser of the San Francisco chronicle, who provides some of the contract details. Forst is now signed through 2023, giving him another four years as the Oakland GM. The length of Beane’s extension is as of yet unknown, though the expectation is that he will be in Oakland for the foreseeable future.

Extensions were expected for the Oakland trio after a surprising 97-65 record took the team to the Wild Card game versus the Yankees despite fielding a team with the lowest opening day payroll in the league. Faced with those limited resources and a host of injuries, Beane, Forst and Melvin frankensteined together a pitching staff from veteran castoffs and reclamation projects like Edwin Jackson, Trevor Cahill and Brett Anderson. Together with an offense powered by a defensive third basemen and the most consistent hitter in baseball history, Oakland stormed past the Mariners to place themselves in the elite class of American League contenders. With their braintrust locked in, Oakland has achieved its primary goal of the offseason and can now turn the trio’s attention toward building on their 2018 success and staying atop a crowded AL West.

Beane was the GM of the A’s for 18 years before the promotion to his current title in 2015. He has been named Executive of the Year twice by Baseball America, twice by The Sporting News, as well as MLB.com’s Greatness in Baseball Yearly (GIBBY) award as the 2012 MLB Executive of the Year. He is most famous, of course, for launching the moneyball era of baseball sabermetrics, but he continues to hunt for and find market inefficiencies that help his Oakland A’s overcome the payroll disparity they face year in and year out. He holds an ownership stake in the A’s, so it seems he is secure in his role running the baseball ops department ad infinitum. Beane signs this new deal as he wraps up the five-year deal he signed back in 2012.

Melvin is a two-time manager of the year recipient, most recently in 2012 with Oakland. He is third in franchise history with 634 wins, and it’s certainly conceivable that he’ll pass Tony La Russa (798) for second on that list before this new deal is done. Before the extension, Melvin had inked a series of short-term arrangements, including when he and the club agreed to tack on the 2019 season as the 2017 campaign drew to a close. Amazingly, this season’s 22-win improvement is the third time Melvin has led a team to a 20-game improvement. He has been with the A’s since 2011, making the playoffs four times in that span (2012, 2013, 2014, 2018).

It’s not entirely clear how Forst’s contract situation has been handled in the past, but he has been with the Oakland organization for twenty years. He served for twelve years as the assistant general manager before his promotion to GM four years ago. He may not have as much name recognition as Billy Beane, but Forst has long been a part of the braintrust in Oakland and seems to be, like Beane, an Oakland lifer.

Latest On Athletics’ Contract Talks With Melvin, Front Office

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As a stunning 2018 campaign drew to a close, it emerged that — rather unsurprisingly — the Athletics intended to pursue a new contract with manager Bob Melvin. But we had yet to really hear anything firm on the outlook for executive VP of baseball operations Billy Beane and GM David Forst since some mid-season questions arose.

The latest indication is that all three are working on new contracts that could be announced in a coordinated fashion. Julian McWilliams of The Athletic reports (subscription links) that a deal with Melvin is all but a foregone conclusion, with “similar extensions” for the front office duo “being hashed out as well.”

It is not yet clear what kind of term of years might be anticipated, or whether all three will end up on similar timelines. At present, Melvin, Beane, and Forst are each under contract through the 2019 season, but they reached that common terminus through different paths.

In Melvin’s case, he has inked a series of short-term arrangements. Most recently, he and the club agreed to tack on the 2019 season as the 2017 campaign drew to a close. Beane is wrapping up a five-year deal that he agreed to way back in February of 2012. It’s not entirely clear how Forst’s contract situation has been handled, but it seems reasonable to presume that he is also working on a long-term deal — perhaps dating back to the point that he was promoted in the fall of 2015.

If all three leaders are indeed extended, they’ll be tasked with overseeing what is hoped to be quite an exciting period in franchise history. The A’s have their work cut out if they are to repeat their 97-win campaign, but certainly have an impressive core of young talent to build around now and for some time to come. Meanwhile, upper management will hope that the on-field excitement helps drive the organization’s efforts to line up a new ballpark and open other revenue sources.

A’s Notes: Davis, Melvin, Lucroy, Lowrie, Kelley

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After falling short in the AL wild card game, the Athletics are looking ahead to what they hope is another year of contention in 2019.  Baseball operations executive VP Billy Beane and general manager David Forst met with reporters (including Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle and NBCSports.com’s Ben Ross) today to discuss some pressing matters as the A’s enter the offseason…

  • The A’s have had “some preliminary conversations” with Khris Davis’ representatives about a contract extension, Beane said.  The two sides have already touched base about an extension multiple times this year, initially a one-year deal to cover Davis’ final year of arbitration eligibility in 2019, and then talks of a multi-year agreement over the summer.  After a league-best 48 homers, Davis is due for a big arbitration raise over his $10.5MM salary from 2018, and any sort of pricey extension is pretty rare for the low-payroll Athletics.  Still, Beane did say last year that the team was looking to identify and extend players it felt were cornerstones, and Davis’ consistent power production has certainly been a big boost to the Oakland lineup.
  • A contract extension for manager Bob Melvin is likely coming by early next week.  “Bob is one of the best in the game and he’s perfect for us.  The idea is he’s here for a long time and for the rest of his career,” Beane said.  The two sides were expected to meet after the season to discuss a new deal, and it appears as though negotiations will wrap up in quick fashion.  Oakland has a 634-599 record and four postseason appearances over Melvin’s eight seasons as manager, and this year’s 97-win campaign certainly made Melvin deserving of a longer commitment beyond the end of the 2019 season, when his current deal expires.  The length of Melvin’s next contract will be of interest, given that Slusser reported over the summer about rumblings that the trio of Melvin, Beane, and Forst might not stay together beyond 2019 — Melvin’s deal could give a hint about Beane and/or Forst’s future.
  • The A’s figure to have interest in re-signing Jonathan Lucroy, with Slusser feeling that Lucroy would be looking for a two-year deal but the team would prefer another one-year contract.  Prospect Sean Murphy looks to be the catcher of the future, though “Sean’s got all of three games at Triple-A, so it’s hard to say where he starts 2019,” Forst said.  Murphy hit .288/.358/.498 over 289 PA at Double-A this season, though his season was shortened by a broken hamate bone.  Until Murphy gets more seasoning, Lucroy would be a logical choice as a veteran bridge, and finding that multi-year free agent deal could be difficult for Lucroy given that he was forced to settle for a one-year pact in free agency last offseason and is now coming off a much weaker year at the plate.  In a separate piece yesterday, Slusser reported that there hadn’t yet been any talks between Lucroy and the Athletics.
  • Free agent second baseman Jed Lowrie reiterated that he wants to stay with the A’s, saying he has “made it abundantly clear” to all parties.  Oakland had interest in an extension back in July, so there certainly appears to be some momentum on both sides to work out a new deal.  Lowrie turns 35 in April, though a multi-year appears to be in order after back-to-back impressive seasons — the veteran hit .272/.356/.448 with 37 homers and 86 doubles in 1325 PA since the start of the 2017 campaign.
  • In an appearance on the A’s Plus podcast with Slusser back in August, reliever Shawn Kelley hinted that “it’s possible” 2018 could be his last season.  “I’ve told a lot of my close friends [and] my family, that it would take something pretty either convenient location-wise or something that maybe I couldn’t turn down to probably get me to come back to another Spring Training,” Kelley said.  That would seemingly put a return to the A’s in question, as the Kelley family’s offseason home is in Chattanooga (far removed from Oakland or the Athletics’ Spring Training camp in Mesa, Arizona), though his feelings could have changed since the time the podcast was released.  Arm issues could be one reason for Kelley’s decision, as he has two Tommy John surgeries on his record and joked that “my elbow is about 85 [years old], it feels like some days.”  Performance-wise, the 34-year-old Kelley is still pitching at a high level, bouncing back from an injury-shortened 2017 to post a 2.94 ERA, 9.2 K/9, and 4.55 K/BB rate over 49 innings for the Nationals and A’s this season, though he also missed two weeks to the DL with an ulnar nerve problem.

AL West Notes: Athletics, Ohtani, Luhnow, Rangers Infield

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Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle takes an interesting look at the future of the Athletics’ baseball operations and field leadership. She cites “increasing speculation in baseball circles and among those who know the A’s higher-ups” that the existing combination of VP of baseball ops Billy Beane, GM David Forst, and manager Bob Melvin may not be maintained past the 2019 campaign. The club is not obligated contractually beyond next season to Beane or Melvin, with the notable exception of Beane’s small stake in the team itself — a potential future wrinkle to keep in mind. Forst’s contract status is not publicly known. As Slusser explains, there’s a general sense that change is afoot in Oakland, though the direction (let alone the outcome) is not yet clear. It’s a worthwhile examination of the A’s organization that you’ll want to read for yourself to appreciate fully.

Here’s more from the AL West:

  • The Angels continue to emphasize that the next steps for injured superstar Shohei Ohtani will not be decided until his sprained elbow ligament has a chance to respond to recent treatment. That said, manager Mike Scioscia says there’s significant internal optimism that the news will be good, as Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times reports (Twitter links). For the time being, Ohtani is limited to taking some swings with his left arm. It’ll still be two or three weeks until more is known.
  • Astros owner Jim Crane and newly-promoted president of baseball operations Jeff Luhnow discussed their plans for the future after announcing a new contract for Luhnow yesterday, as MLB.com’s Christian Boutwell writes. Crane says that Luhnow deserves “a lot of the credit” for the club’s World Series win last year and promising future outlook. It’s the possibility of a sustainable run of success, meanwhile, that has Luhnow excited. “[T]his next phase of keeping this organization at its high level for an extended period of time, that’s what drives me, that challenge,” he said. Despite his new title, Luhnow will continue to function as the general manager and will hang onto that label as well, though he says he’ll be willing to hand it off to someone else if that proves necessary. Luhnow also suggested that there’s a strong commitment to skipper A.J. Hinch, whose contract expires after the current season but seems likely to be extended at some point.
  • The Rangers have a crowded infield mix now with Elvis Andrus re-joining the active roster. As Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News explains, the organization hopes to keep all of its primary options on the field quite often, allowing Jurickson Profar to continue receiving ample opportunities while also letting Rougned Odor work through his struggles at the plate. Skipper Jeff Banister says this will be accomplished by utilizing third baseman Adrian Beltre as a DH with some frequency and allowing Andrus some extra rest. Utilityman Isiah Kiner-Falefa, meanwhile, is going to attempt to add to his versatility by suiting up behind the dish, as Grant tweets. It’ll be interesting to see how this situation plays out for the struggling Rangers, who could weigh trades involving several of these players. In particular, Beltre (who’ll be a free agent at season’s end) and Andrus (who can opt out of his contract) seem to be plausible candidates.
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