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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.

A’s Executives On Offseason, Future

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On Monday, the Oakland Athletics held a season-ending press conference. Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle and Joe Stiglich of NBC Sports were present, and both provided insightful takes on the words from A’s VP of Baseball Operations Billy Beane and GM David Forst.

Somewhat expectedly, it doesn’t seem as though the A’s are likely to add significant payroll or make any sort of all-in push towards contention this year.

“Next year, you want to improve,” Beane says (via Slusser), “but more than anything, if we can just get long-term pieces in — a process that was started this year and will continue on — I think we’ll feel good. If we have the opportunity for a playoff spot, of course, I think we’ve always been opportunistic, and we’ll look at the winter that way, but we do want to be disciplined long term.”

Slusser also adds that Beane expressed disappointment in the volatile development process of their young pitchers (which would include up-and-down seasons from Sean Manaea, Kendall Graveman and Jharel Cotton), but adds that the free-agent market for starting pitchers is too risky to plunge into. The A’s, according to Beane, want to build their pitching staff “organically.” 2016 first-rounder A.J. Puk and trade acquisition James Kaprielian are good bets to contribute to the A’s rotation in the near future as well.

However, the A’s believe that their offense is in very good shape for the future. Khris Davis hit 43 homers last season, and they have no plans to shop the slugger, per Beane (via Slusser). He’ll complement a young core led by Matt Olson, Matt Chapman, Bruce Maxwell and Chad Pinder that has earned the faith of the front office. That group will only get stronger as additional minor leaguers join the MLB club. Highly-touted prospect Franklin Barreto could begin the season at Triple-A, for instance, but seems likely to contribute in 2018 as well.

Notably, the A’s brain trust is already looking at which members of the young core to lock up via long-term extensions.

“First, we want to make sure we’re identifying the right guys,” said Beane (via Stiglich). “I’ll just say it’s probably a conversation we’ve already started. We’ve had that discussion already. It’s going to be important for us to do it.”

Olson, Chapman, Manaea, and Ryon Healy all seem like candidates for these type of extensions (though Slusser notes that Oakland could choose to dangle Healy in potential trades for pitching help). The A’s appear to be acting more proactively on this front than the organization typically has in past years, and interestingly, Beane cites the new stadium as a factor.

“When you’re talking about building a club for a stadium that’s six years off, and if you’re talking about locking them up, then you’re looking to have to lock them up for a long time. So that’s sort of the trick and the balance that we have to address this offseason, if we’re going to embark on that… I think right now we’ve just got to operate that (the ballpark) is going to happen (on time). The other option is one we’ve done my entire career here, which is constant churn. I’m churned out.”

The A’s are treating their new ballpark as additional motivation to get a strong perennial contender together. They believe that by combining a team the fans are excited about with a move to a brand new stadium, they can give a major boost to a franchise that will continue to see revenue-sharing checks dwindle over the next few seasons. Beane cites the Indians’ success with a similar enterprise back in the 90s as the model for his plan.

“I think you have to be very proactive long before a stadium opens,” Beane said (via Slusser, in a separate article). “Listen, you have to get people excited about the product that’s going in a new stadium if you expect them to pay higher prices or even come at all. That’s really important. So for me, the model has always been the Indians. No one has done it since then nearly as well. If you wait too long and try to create a team a year before the stadium opens, most of them badly miss the mark, and we’ve got to take advantage of it.”

It’s been a tough couple of seasons for the A’s since an aggressive but ultimately disappointing playoff push in 2014. But if they can lock up some of their promising young players and continue to add to an intriguing foundation, the franchise could be well on its way to sustainable success sooner than later.

Multiple Candidates Have Declined To Interview With Twins

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“Multiple GM types” have failed to reciprocate interest shown in them by the Twins, according to Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports (on Twitter). Passan goes on to suggest that while the job and president of baseball operations title are appealing, there could be some reluctance due to the fact that overhauling the organization’s infrastructure is no small task.

We’ve already heard recently that Alex Anthopoulos turned down a chance at consideration. And Passan says the same held true of former Red Sox GM Ben Cherington, who joined the Blue Jays earlier today in a position of less authority than he theoretically could have obtained in Minnesota. La Velle E. Neal III of the Minneapolis Star Tribune first reported that Cherington declined Minnesota’s request for an interview and cited “personal reasons” for doing so. Per Neal’s report, Twins brass nonetheless chatted with Cherington and “picked his brain” on some potential candidates.

Athletics GM David Forst, too, has “declined interest,” according to Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN (via Twitter). Forst only recently moved into the general manager seat in Oakland, with Billy Beane moving up to the president of baseball operations role, though Beane seemingly remains very active in running the Athletics’ operations department.

The Twins are dangling an opportunity to achieve the president of baseball operations title, which in theory at least adds to the allure of the position. And the club has gobs of young talent, even if some of it hasn’t panned out thus far at the Major League level. The opportunity seemingly exists for the president-to-be to handpick a general manager, too, though owner Jim Pohlad has made clear that manager Paul Molitor will be retained, and there have been suggestions that interim GM Rob Antony will remain with the organization in some capacity. Antony, long the assistant GM under Terry Ryan and Bill Smith, is reportedly under contract through next season.

It certainly doesn’t seem as if Minnesota has failed to attract any appealing candidates as their front office search gets underway in earnest. The organization already sat down with Royals AGM J.J. Picollo and may be headed for a chat with highly-regarded Cubs exec Jason McLeod as well.

Athletics Promote Billy Beane, David Forst

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The Athletics announced this afternoon that they have promoted general manager Billy Beane to the role of executive vice president of baseball operations. Additionally, David Forst has been promoted from assistant general manager to the role of general manager, thus filling Beane’s previous title. The moves were not unexpected, as the San Francisco Chronicle’s Susan Slusser reported them to be likely back in early August.

By making this pair of promotions, the A’s gravitate toward the increasingly popular dual executive model — specifically, a president of baseball operations and a GM working beneath him — that is employed by the Cubs, Dodgers, Red Sox, Marlins, Giants and others.

Beane has been the Athletics’ top baseball decision-maker since 1998, whereas Forst has been with the organization in a variety of capacities (first as a scout) since 2000. The promotion ensures that Forst, for the time being, won’t seek other general manager vacancies elsewhere, as he’s now been promoted to the same role within the Oakland ranks. Forst has been mentioned as a GM-in-the-making previously, as has fellow AGM Dan Kantrovitz. The A’s lost one of their top assistants last offseason when Farhan Zaidi joined the Dodgers’ front office to serve as GM under president Andrew Friedman.

The 53-year-old Beane has a reputation as one of the game’s most aggressive GMs and has taken his fair share of heat recently due to last offseason’s trade of potential AL MVP Josh Donaldson and the team’s subsequent last-place finish in the AL West. He’s also, however, navigated the Athletics to eight playoff berths since taking over in ’98 despite notorious payroll constraints that limit his ability to retain star-caliber players and aggressively pursue upper-echelon free agents.

Beane and Forst further bolstered the Oakland farm system this summer by trading Scott Kazmir, Ben Zobrist and Tyler Clippard for minor league talent, and they’ll look to re-tool the Oakland roster this offseason in an effort to return to postseason play for what would be the fourth time in a five-year span.

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