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Mark Kotsay

A’s, Mark Kotsay Agree To Extension

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9:52am: The A’s announced Kotsay’s extension.

9:42am: The A’s and manager Mark Kotsay have agreed to a three-year contract extension, reports Martin Gallegos of MLB.com. The new contract spans the 2026-28 seasons and gives the A’s a club option over the 2029 campaign. The A’s exercised a 2025 club option on Kotsay back in November, but he was unsigned beyond the current season prior to this new agreement.

Kotsay, 49, has helmed the A’s since 2022 and was the team’s bench coach and quality control coach for the five prior seasons. He also spent four seasons of 17-year major league career in green and gold — including perhaps the best season of his career, in 2004, when he hit .314/.370/.459 as the Athletics’ everyday center fielder.

Though Kotsay’s managerial record is an ugly 179-307, win-loss records rarely tell the full tale of a manager’s success (or lack thereof). That’s all the more true of a rebuilding club. The A’s have made virtually no effort to field a competitive roster throughout Kotsay’s tenure. The focus has been on culling payroll, acquiring/developing young players and, from a bigger picture standpoint, finalizing the relocation process that’s currently landed them in West Sacramento. The idea is to move to Las Vegas for the 2028 season, which would be Kotsay’s final guaranteed year on the current contract.

Expectations for Kotsay will rise during his second contract with the club. The A’s have spent more on the 2025 roster than at any point in recent seasons, due in part to foster interest with a new temporary fanbase in Sacramento but more so due to the threat of having their status as a revenue-sharing recipient revoked for the second time in the past decade. The A’s have signed Luis Severino, Jose Leclerc, Gio Urshela, T.J. McFarland and apparently Luis Urias in free agency, and they swung a trade to bring left-hander Jeffrey Springs over from Tampa Bay as well. Those acquisitions, plus a five-year extension for slugger Brent Rooker, have added $162MM in new long-term money to the team’s books, including more than $45MM for the upcoming 2025 season.

While the Athletics’ roughly $74MM payroll and $106MM luxury-tax number still sit at or near the bottom of the league overall, it’s still a small uptick from recent seasons; from 2022-24, the A’s ran payrolls between $50-65MM and never reached even an $85MM CBT number.

The new additions will join a burgeoning core of interesting young hitters. The late-blooming Rooker is the Athletics’ lineup cornerstone, but outfielders JJ Bleday and Lawrence Butler have blossomed at the plate, while prospects Jacob Wilson, Zack Gelof and Tyler Soderstrom have shown varying flashes of upside at shortstop, second base and first base, respectively. Shea Langeliers doesn’t get on base much, but his 29 homers in 2024 were second among all major league catchers, trailing only division-rival Cal Raleigh (34) up in Seattle. On the pitching side of things, lefty JP Sears looks like a solid innings eater at the very least, while closer Mason Miller has emerged as one of the game’s premier bullpen arms.

The A’s won’t enter the 2025 season as a favorite in the AL West by any stretch of the word, but they’re in a better position that any point since their latest rebuild kicked off — even though the slate of trades shipping out Matt Olson, Matt Chapman, Sean Manaea, Frankie Montas, Chris Bassitt, A.J. Puk, Lou Trivino and others hasn’t actually yielded many of the club’s current core contributors. (Langeliers came over in the Olson swap; Bleday was acquired for Puk.)

For the time being, the focus in West Sacramento will largely be on coaxing further development from Butler, Bleday, Wilson, Gelof, Soderstrom and looming first baseman of the future Nick Kurtz. Before long, however, the A’s will likely be expected to take a legitimate step forward — particularly if payroll continues to rise ahead of the planned move to the Las Vegas Strip. Ownership has clearly determined that Kotsay is the right person to spearhead those efforts and that such continuity will yield similar gains to the ones enjoyed in 2024, when the A’s improved by 19 games over their 2023 record due largely to improvements from players already in house.

Managers & Top Front Office Executives On Expiring Contracts

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Several teams don’t publicize contract details for their top front office executives or even for their managers, so this list of skipper and execs (any head of a baseball operations department, whether titled as a president of baseball ops, general manager, chief baseball officer, etc.) entering the final year of their deals may not be entirely complete or accurate.  Still, since MLBTR so often focuses on players entering their “contract year,” this post provides a rough outline of which notable team personnel may be feeling some extra pressure as their own deals may be close to expiring.

It is quite possible some of these names may have already quietly signed extensions weeks or months ago, or will sign new deals during Spring Training once clubs turn their attention away from offseason roster-building.  A shorter-term extension may not necessarily indicate much extra job security, as some teams tack an extra year (or at least a club option) onto an executive or managerial contract just to avoid the appearance of that person entering a lame-duck year.  Of course, even a longer contract is no guarantee of job security, as a rough season can instantly put a manager or a front office on the hot seat.

As always, thanks to Cot’s Baseball Contracts for reference information on some of these contract terms.

Angels: Ron Washington is already heading into the final season under contract, as he signed only a two-year deal to manage the Halos in November 2023.  While the Angels were only 63-99 last season, it could hardly be considered Washington’s fault given the subpar state of the roster.  Expectations will be higher in 2025 since the team has been aggressing in adding talent this winter, and since GM Perry Minasian got a contract extension last August, Los Angeles might also look to add a year onto Washington’s deal to at least keep him on line with the guaranteed portion of Minasian’s new contract.  It should be noted that Washington turns 73 this coming April, so he might also prefer to just take things year-to-year if he has any thoughts about retirement.

Astros: Dana Brown is entering his third season as Houston’s GM, and the terms of his contract weren’t made public when he was hired in January 2023.  It is possible Brown might only be working on a three-year deal since his predecessor James Click also received just a three-year commitment, though Click was hired in the singular aftermath of the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal.  This probably isn’t a situation to monitor too closely since the Astros have kept winning during Brown’s tenure, with the caveat that owner Jim Crane and his advisors are known to weigh heavily on baseball operations decisions.  Click was let go within days of winning a World Series due to reported acrimony with Crane, but there hasn’t been any indication of any heat between Crane and Brown.

Athletics: Mark Kotsay’s initial contract covered the 2022-24 seasons, and the A’s picked up Kotsay’s 2025 club option over a year ago.  GM David Forst said in October that “there’s no one I would rather have managing this team,” and that Kotsay “wants to be here,” though there hasn’t been any public word about any extension talks.  As comfortable as Kotsay seems with the organization, it is possible he might be willing to let the season play out and then explore his options, if he has any uncertainty over continuing to manage the A’s through their stint in West Sacramento before their planned move to Las Vegas for the 2028 season.  While no public details were revealed about Forst’s latest contract, the GM has obviously signed some kind of extension since his last deal expired after the 2023 season, and said in November that “I’ve been here for 25 years.  There’s not a thought that I wouldn’t be in this for the long run.”

Blue Jays: Manager John Schneider is entering the last guaranteed season of his three-year contract, as the Blue Jays hold a club option on Schneider for 2026.  It is fair to guess that the Jays might not exercise that option too far in advance, as there is widespread speculation that another disappointing season (or even a slow start) will cost Schneider his job.  The same could be true of general manager Ross Atkins, even though Atkins is under contract through 2026.  Team president Mark Shapiro is also entering the final season of his five-year contract, and while Shapiro’s focus has been more towards bigger-picture projects like Rogers Centre’s renovations, his possible departure might also trigger a larger overhaul unless the Jays turn things around on the field in 2025.

Braves: Manager Brian Snitker is entering the last year of his contract, so the Braves might well look to tack at least one more season onto Snitker’s deal this spring.  Snitker has led Atlanta to the postseason in each of the last seven seasons, highlighted by the team’s World Series victory in 2021.  He has stuck to just shorter-term deals and extensions during his tenure, which is probably due more to his age (Snitker turned 69 in October) than any dissatisfaction on the organization’s part, so no change seems imminent in the Braves dugout.

Cardinals: John Mozeliak’s exit plan is already in place.  The longtime head of the St. Louis front office is stepping down after the 2025 season, with Chaim Bloom already inked to a long-term contract to become the Cardinals’ next president of baseball operations.

Cubs: The Cubs have posted 83-79 records in each of the last two seasons, but they still haven’t reached the postseason during Jed Hoyer’s four-year tenure as president of baseball operations.  2025 is the last year of Hoyer’s original five-year contract, and acquiring Kyle Tucker (who is a free agent next winter) in a big-ticket trade might indicate that Hoyer is feeling some heat to win as soon as possible.  It can be argued that Hoyer has been somewhat hamstrung by ownership’s reluctance to spend at the top of the market, but that might also indicate that ownership could be considering hiring a PBO with more experience in building contenders on limited budgets.

Dodgers: Reports surfaced earlier today that the Dodgers are planning to work out an extension with Dave Roberts, as the skipper is entering the last season of his last three-year extension with the club.  It comes as no surprise that L.A. wants to retain Roberts in the wake of the team’s second World Series title during his tenure, and it stands to reason that president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman is also a candidate for a new deal, perhaps regardless of the terms of his last agreement.  Friedman came to the Dodgers on a five-year deal in October 2014, then signed an extension of an unknown length in November 2019.  If that next contract was another five-year pact, Friedman is a technically free agent right now, but there has no zero indication that Friedman (who has been as busy as ever in bolstering the Dodgers roster this winter) is going anywhere.

Guardians: This is a speculative entry since it has been well over a decade since Chris Antonetti’s contract terms were publicly reported.  Even if he is approaching the end of his current deal, there hasn’t been any sense that the Guardians are planning a front office change, especially not in the wake of another AL Central crown and a trip to the ALCS.  Antonetti has been a member of Cleveland’s front office since 1999, and in his current role as president of baseball operations since October 2015.

Mariners: Jerry Dipoto has been extended twice since the M’s first hired him in September 2015, and his last extension in September 2021 was a multi-year deal of unspecified length.  It is therefore possible this could be Dipoto’s final season under contract as Seattle’s president of baseball operations, unless another extension has been signed in the last three-plus years.  Despite four straight seasons of 85 or more wins, the Mariners reached the playoffs just once in that span, as a lack of hitting has hampered the team over the last two years in particular.  It remains to be seen if ownership is okay with just being competitive (or, as Dipoto infamously put it, winning “54 percent of the time“) or if any impatience is growing over the Mariners’ difficulty in truly breaking through as a contender.  The Mariners were sparked to a 21-13 record down the stretch after manager Dan Wilson was hired last August, so it could be that the managerial change (and a change of hitting coaches) is what was needed to get the M’s back on track, but Dipoto and Wilson could both face pressure if Seattle again falls short of postseason baseball.

Orioles: Mike Elias has been Baltimore’s GM for six seasons, though his contract terms haven’t been made public at any point during his tenure.  Manager Brandon Hyde signed a three-year deal when first hired prior to the 2019 season, and he has signed at least one or perhaps two extensions since, leaving his contract status a bit of a mystery.  This is another situation where job security probably isn’t an issue, as the Orioles have come out of their rebuild to reach the playoffs in back-to-back years, even if the club has yet to record even a single postseason win in that span.  New owner David Rubenstein is eager to win but hasn’t shown any inclination to changing the leadership structure since he bought the Orioles earlier this year.

Pirates: Ben Cherington has now completed five full seasons as the Buccos’ general manager, so he either signed a somewhat unusually long contract when first hired, or he has already inked one extension that has escaped public attention.  Pittsburgh fans are impatiently waiting for the first winning season of Cherington’s tenure, as the team has flirted with contention in each of the last two years before finishing with identical 76-86 records.  Paul Skenes has at least emerged as the crown jewel of the Pirates’ lengthy rebuild process, so regardless of Cherington’s contract terms, it doesn’t appear as though he is in any danger of being fired.

Rangers: Bruce Bochy’s return to managing saw him sign a three-year contract with Texas, so 2025 represents the final year of that deal.  Bochy turns 70 in April but didn’t give any hints about retiring when speaking to reporters at the end of the season.  A second straight losing season might change the equation either on Bochy’s end or on the front office’s end, but the Rangers’ 2023 World Series title (to say nothing of Bochy’s three previous rings as the Giants’ manager) has naturally brought him a lot of leeway within the organization.  Both sides might prefer to go year-to-year just to maintain flexibility, but it wouldn’t be surprising if Bochy soon gets another year added to his contract.

Rockies: Bud Black has signed three straight one-year extensions to remain as Colorado’s manager, and past reports have indicated that Black is on something of an unofficial year-to-year rolling contract with the organization.  It is perhaps notable that Black’s most recent deal wasn’t finalized until this past October, whereas his previous two extensions were completed prior to the start of the seasons.  This might indicate that ownership and/or Black himself are starting to think harder about continuing the relationship in the wake of six straight losing seasons, even despite the Rockies’ well-known penchant for staying loyal to long-term employees.  The same logic could extend to GM Bill Schmidt, though Schmidt’s contract terms haven’t been known since he was elevated to the full-time general manager position in October 2021.

Royals: Matt Quatraro is entering the final guaranteed year of his initial three-year contract as manager, though the Royals have a club option on his services for the 2026 season.  J.J. Picollo has also completed two full seasons as the team’s general manager since being elevated to top of Kansas City’s baseball ops ladder in September 2022, though his contract status in the wake of that promotion wasn’t known.  Regardless, it doesn’t seem like either is going anywhere, and extensions could be in order since the Royals enjoyed an 86-win season and a return to the playoffs last year, including a wild card series win over the Orioles.

Tigers: Likewise, Detroit is also coming off a playoff appearance and a wild card series victory, as a magical late-season surge left the Tigers just one game short of the ALCS.  It is therefore safe to assume that president of baseball operations Scott Harris has plenty of job security, and while his contract terms aren’t known, it is probably safe to assume Harris received more than a three-year guarantee when he was hired in September 2022.

Twins: Some larger-scale changes could be afoot in Minnesota since the Pohlad family is exploring selling the Twins, and some shuffling in the front office has already taken place, with president of baseball ops Derek Falvey also becoming the president of business operations and Jeremy Zoll replacing Thad Levine as general manager.  Falvey’s previous deal was up after the 2024 season so obviously he signed an extension, but while manager Rocco Baldelli’s previous extension is known to have run through at least the end of the 2025 campaign, it is unclear if the coming season is the final year of that deal.  If Baldelli is indeed heading into a lame-duck year, the ownership situation might prevent the skipper from getting at least another season added to his deal, just so a new owner could potentially have a clean slate in evaluating things once they take over the team.

White Sox: This is more of a speculative entry, just because Chris Getz’s contract terms weren’t released when he was named Chicago’s general manager in August 2023.  A GM wouldn’t normally be considered to be on the hot seat so soon after being hired, nor are immediate results expected since the White Sox are quite obviously going through a hefty rebuild.  While nobody expected the Sox to contend in 2024, however, there’s a difference between just being a losing team and having a league-record 121 losses.  Another embarrassment of a season might give owner Jerry Reinsdorf second thoughts about Getz’s stewardship of the rebuild effort, or the possibility exists that Reinsdorf could sell the team, which should shake the organization up entirely.

Yankees: Aaron Boone quieted some of his critics when the Yankees both returned to the postseason, and captured the first AL pennant of Boone’s seven-year stint as the Bronx manager.  This result led the Yankees to exercise their club option on Boone’s services for 2025, and while no negotiations had taken place about a longer-term deal as of early November, it stands to reason that some talks will take place before Opening Day.  Then again, Boone’s current deal wasn’t signed until after he’d already completed the final season his previous contract, so it could be that the Yankees will again play wait-and-see.  There isn’t much sense that Boone is in jeopardy, and while expectations are always high in New York, ownership’s loyalty to Boone through some relative lean years would make it unusual if he was let go so soon after a World Series appearance.

GM David Forst: Athletics Aim To Raise Payroll, Retain Coaching Staff

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While the Athletics’ move from Oakland to Sacramento will naturally dominate the headlines this season, general manager David Forst will have his hands full just with the normal trappings of the baseball offseason.  Forst told reporters (including radio broadcaster Jessica Kleinschmidt and the San Francisco Chronicle’s Susan Slusser) that the team plans to spend more on payroll than it did in 2024, and that the A’s are hopeful of bringing back the entire coaching staff for their first season in Sacramento.

As per RosterResource, the A’s spent roughly $63.1MM on payroll last season, easily the lowest in baseball.  Forst’s front office also has an entirely clean payroll slate heading into 2025, as the A’s don’t have a single dollar officially committed to any player for the coming season.  The Athletics have five impending free agents, five players eligible for salary arbitration (to the tune of a projected $13.8MM if all are tendered contracts), and the rest of the roster is still in their pre-arb years.

In theory, this gives Forst some flexibility in upgrading a team that showed some promise last season.  While the A’s were only 69-93, this at least represented a sizeable improvement from the club’s 112-loss performance in 2023.  Moreover, the Athletics seemed to turn a corner around midseason, as they were 39-37 from July 1 onward.  Between slugger Brent Rooker, flame-throwing closer Mason Miller, breakout outfielder Lawrence Butler, and others, the Athletics’ latest rebuild has already developed some interesting pieces of a new core.  Both Rooker and Zack Gelof are quoted in Slusser’s piece as having an eye towards contending as early as next season.

Of course, given the Athletics’ usual reluctance to spend, we should probably wait and see if owner John Fisher will indeed approve even a modest payroll increase.  This winter in particular carries the X-factor of how the Athletics’ revenues will be impacted by the move to Sacramento’s Sutter Health Park, a Triple-A stadium (home of the Giants’ top minor league affiliate) with a total capacity of just over 14,000.  As Slusser notes, there are still plenty of details about the move that team officials themselves aren’t yet certain.  Forst believed Sutter Health Park would continue to have an artificial playing surface during the Athletics’ tenure, though no renovation work has started on the field itself in preparation for 2025.

The other challenge facing Forst this offseason is how exactly he’ll be able to lure desirable players to join the A’s, even if more money is available to spend.  “We do have to sell it, and I’d be lying if I told you I knew what the answers will be on the other side,” Forst said.  While the younger talent on the roster might be attractive to free agents under normal circumstances, the fact remains that many players might not have interest in joining a franchise that will be spending at least its next three seasons in a minor league ballpark.  It seems likely that the A’s will again be limited to signing players to one-year contracts, with an eye towards flipping those players at the trade deadline if the team isn’t in contention.

As for the coaching staff, some turnover might develop if other teams step forward with job offers or promotions for any A’s coaches.  Slusser also suggests that the Athletics might not stand in the way if rival clubs had interest in manager Mark Kotsay, which would be an interesting wrinkle to both the team’s rebuilding plans and to any possible managerial vacancies around the league.

Kotsay is only 179-307 over three seasons as the Athletics’ skipper, though the poor record doesn’t fairly access his managerial ability given how little Kotsay has had to work with on a rebuilding roster, not to mention the added tumult of the franchise’s planned move.  Kotsay is under contract just through the 2025 season, and it is perhaps worth noting that the A’s let previous manager Bob Melvin go to the Padres when Melvin also had a year remaining on his contract.

“As far as the potential for losing [Kotsay], those things are out of my control right now,” Forst said.  “He absolutely deserves to be considered by anyone who has a managerial opening, but he’s under contract here and wants to be here. And there’s no one I would rather have managing this team.”

Athletics Exercise Mark Kotsay’s Option For 2025

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The Athletics have exercised manager Mark Kotsay’s contract option for the 2025 season, the team announced. This gives the skipper some job security, as he now knows he won’t enter the 2024 campaign a lame duck.

Earlier this offseason, the Athletics gave Kotsay permission to interview for the Mets’ managerial opening. He was one of the last candidates they interviewed, but he was reportedly removed from consideration before the Mets made their final decision (per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic).

Kotsay played 17 MLB seasons, including four with the A’s. Following his retirement, he spent a brief stint as the Padres hitting coach, before he returned to Oakland and joined then-manager Bob Melvin’s staff in 2016. Over six seasons, he served as bench coach, quality control coach, and third base coach. When Melvin left for his own short stint with the Padres in 2022, Kotsay took over as manager, signing a three-year deal with a team option for 2025. That option has now been picked up.

Evidently, the Athletics are happy with Kotsay’s performance over the last two seasons. While the team has a .340 winning percentage under his leadership, a manager can only do so much with the roster he’s given.

“Mark’s leadership, character, and integrity have been a hallmark of his time with the A’s; first as a player and a coach, and, for the last two years, as our manager,” said general manager David Forst (per MLB.com). “Picking up his option was an obvious decision to make for our club, and I look forward to having him lead the A’s on the field through 2025 and hopefully beyond.”

Managerial/Coaching Notes: Showalter, Kotsay, Ramos, Hudgens

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Buck Showalter is one of “several finalists” to be the Angels’ next manager, MLB Network’s Jon Morosi reports (via X).  Reports have linked Showalter to Anaheim’s vacancy for almost a month, just a few days after the Mets announced that the veteran skipper wouldn’t be back in their dugout next season.  Morosi’s update would seemingly imply that the Angels have moved into at least a secondary stage of their search, though public details have been rather scarce to date about who exactly is on the list of candidates.

Beyond Showalter, such names as infield coodinator Benji Gil, former Brewers/Red Sox manager Ron Roenicke, and former Angels players like Torii Hunter, Darin Erstad, and Tim Salmon have all been mentioned as possible candidates for the manager’s job, though it isn’t clear how many proper interviews has taken place.  USA Today’s Bob Nightengale wrote today that the Halos “plan to interview” Hunter, Erstad, and Salmon, which would seem to run counter to the idea that the club has already moved onto its group of finalists.  Regardless, Showalter seems to be firmly in the mix, and his track record would seemingly give him some advantage in the race, as Roenicke is the only other candidate with past experience as a big league manager.

Some more on other managerial and coaching situations from around the game…

  • The Mets’ search might be down to just Craig Counsell and Carlos Mendoza, as reported earlier today by SNY’s Andy Martino.  Earlier this week, Martino reported that Athletics manager Mark Kotsay was also under consideration from New York, and The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal (X link) today wrote that “Kotsay no longer is part of” the Mets’ search.  The A’s did grant Kotsay permission to speak with the Mets, though it doesn’t appear that Kotsay will be departing the Oakland dugout.  The former 17-year MLB veteran has been Oakland’s manager for the last two seasons, with a miserable 110-214 record that is hardly Kotsay’s fault, given that he was tasked with overseeing a team in a massive rebuild.
  • The Phillies announced that Cesar Ramos will be the team’s new bullpen coach for the 2024 season.  Ramos has working in the Phillies organization for the last four seasons, and was the pitching coach for Philadelphia’s Triple-A affiliate in 2022-23.  Ramos is best known for his eight-year pitching career with the Padres, Rays, Angels, and Rangers from 2009-16.
  • The Blue Jays have reassigned hitting strategist Dave Hudgens to another role in the organization, Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi reports.  Hudgens was one of three batting-related coaches on the Jays’ staff (along with hitting coach Guillermo Martinez and assistant hitting coach Hunter Mense) this season, and some changes to this department were expected after most of Toronto’s lineup struggled in 2023.  Hudgens has been on the Blue Jays’ coaching staff since the 2018-19 offseason, previously working as the club’s bench coach.
  • Padres assistant farm director Mike Daly will manage the team’s Triple-A affiliate next season, according to The Athletic’s Dennis Lin.  It is something of an unusual hire, as Daly has no professional experience as a manager, coach, or player at any levels.  Daly’s long career of front office work began with six years in Cleveland’s front office as a baseball operations staff and scout from 2001-06, then 15 seasons with the Rangers that saw him rise to assistant GM status.  Daly also worked with A.J. Preller during that stint in the Texas front office, and in 2021 Daly became one of many of Preller’s past Rangers associates to join San Diego’s organization.

Latest On Mets’ Managerial Search

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The Mets are one of several teams looking for a new manager, with Buck Showalter having been fired last month. Jon Heyman of the New York Post reports that Craig Counsell, seen as some as the favorite for the gig, is heading to New York today with an interview to take place in the coming days. Meanwhile, Andy Martino of SNY reports the club is narrowing the field and will make a hire within the week, with Carlos Mendoza and Athletics’ manager Mark Kotsay also in the mix with Counsell. Martino adds that Astros’ bench coach Joe Espada did not interview for the Mets.

The fit with Counsell has been speculated upon for quite some time. David Stearns was general manager and president of baseball operations with the Brewers for many years, overlapping with Counsell’s time as skipper in Milwaukee. Stearns was recently hired by the Mets for the POBO job with that club and one of his first actions was to fire Showalter, immediately causing many to assume that Counsell would follow Stearns to Queens.

Counsell was under contract with the Brewers through the end of October but the Mets received permission to interview him last week. It seems that interview has still not officially taken place, though Martino reports that he did speak to the club on the phone. He has also interviewed with the Guardians and has attracted the interest of the Astros. While a return to Milwaukee could still be possible, it seems Counsell is being thorough in assessing his options.

Mendoza’s involvement in the search has previously been reported but Kotsay is a new entry. He is currently the manager of the A’s, having been hired to be the bench boss of that club prior to the 2022 campaign. The club has been terrible in that time but that could hardly be blamed on the skipper since the A’s have been aggressively rebuilding, trading away just about every established big league player making a notable salary.

If the Mets are seriously interested in Kotsay, they may have to work out an arrangement with the A’s. Oakland let Bob Melvin jump to the Padres prior to hiring Kotsay, not asking the Padres for any compensation in return. It was speculated that the A’s were happy to let Melvin walk to save on his salary, which was reported to be about $4MM per year. It’s unknown how much Kotsay is making but it’s presumably less than that. Whether the A’s would have any reluctance to letting their manager jump ship this time is unknown.

Espada has been the bench coach in Houston since 2018 and has been connected to various managerial openings since then. He has yet to move on from that gig and it’s unclear if the lack of interview with the Mets was a decision of his or of the Mets. The Astros have their own managerial vacancy with Dusty Baker stepping down and Espada has been floated as a possible fit for that job, though it doesn’t seem as though that club is in a hurry to fill that vacancy.

Billy Beane Discusses A’s Future

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Long-time fans of the Athletics are probably somewhat accustomed to the boom-and-bust cycle of the club by now, with the team oscillating between contenting and rebuilding throughout the 25-year period since Billy Beane took over as general manager. Although Beane was promoted to executive vice president of baseball operations in 2015 with David Forst taking over as GM, the cycle hasn’t stopped.

However, it’s possible that this up-and-down sequence is now in a deeper valley than ever before. After trading away just about every player making a meaningful salary in the past year, the club finished 2022 with a record of 60-102, their worst showing since losing 108 games in 1979. Financially, the club has stripped the payroll back about as close to zero as a team can get. As MLBTR’s Steve Adams laid out in his recent Offseason Outlook piece, the club has no guaranteed contracts and a small arbitration class, most of whom could plausibly be non-tendered or traded.

Still, the opinion of the front office seems to be that this is a road they’ve been down before. Forst and Beane both spoke to the media this week, with the San Francisco Chronicle’s Matt Kawahara and John Shea both reporting on some of the comments. “As long as I’ve been here and worked with Billy,” Forst says, “we’ve worked with what we’ve got, done our best to put the most competitive team we can out there,” before adding, “I don’t think this is any different from what we’ve dealt with at various times over the last 20-plus years.”

Forst and Beane seem to be aware that the poor results were due to decisions made above field level and aren’t falling at the feet of manager Mark Kotsay. This was his first year at the helm after Bob Melvin departed for the Padres a year ago. “He lost some great players and some critical players, and he handled it as well as you could expect, particularly given your first year,” Beane says of Kotsay’s performance in his first season on the job. It seems that Kotsay won’t be evaluated based on wins and losses for the time being, which makes sense.

Climbing back into contention from this nadir won’t be easy, especially without financial resources. The A’s have never been big spenders, with 2019’s Opening Day payroll of $92MM a franchise record. This year, however, they were barely half that, coming in at $48MM, according to figures from Cot’s Baseball Contracts. Beane tells Kawahara that next year’s payroll is “still in discussion.”

One thing impacting the club’s financial future is the ongoing uncertainty around the stadium situation. The club has been in negotiations with the city of Oakland for quite some time about an ambitious project at Howard Terminal. The club has long hoped to make progress on the $12 billion project this year, before upcoming municipal elections lead to a new mayor and change the face of the city’s council. However, Shea reports that it’s likely to get kicked down to the road until after the elections. If it doesn’t end up working out, the club has explored the possibility of following the example of the Raiders and moving to Las Vegas.

Regardless of the slow progression, Beane remains optimistic. “At some point, we will have a new stadium,” he says. “That’s what makes me feel good. I hope it’s within my tenure. But we will. I think the organization, the city deserve it, and it’ll happen.” Still, until there’s some progress, it seems the team will be in a sort or holding pattern. “The frustration from a team standpoint is, yeah, it would be nice to be at that point where we could have some continuity,” Beane added. “We don’t. And until we have a new venue, we’re not going to.”

Amid all that frustration, Beane doesn’t seem to have given any strong consideration to pursuing outside opportunities. About a year ago, the Mets obtained permission to speak to Beane about a position in their front office, though he withdrew himself from the running. Despite the uncertainty in other areas of the franchise, one thing that can seemingly be counted on is Beane’s presence. “If you project five years from now, I believe I will always have something to do with the A’s, until they don’t want me here,” Beane tells Shea. “What will continue no matter what, until they want to want to kick me out the door, is I will have some involvement and some association always with the A’s, is what I believe. I have no intention of ending that.”

A’s Name Mark Kotsay Manager

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Dec. 21: The A’s have formally announced Kotsay as their new manager. He signed a three-year deal with a club option for a fourth season, per the team.

Dec. 20: The Athletics are hiring Mark Kotsay as their next manager, reports Jon Heyman of the MLB Network (Twitter link). The news comes as little surprise, as Heyman had reported over the weekend that Oakland was zeroing in on Kotsay for the position.

It’ll be the first managerial stint for the 46-year-old, who spent the 2021 campaign as the A’s third base coach. While he’d only served in that capacity for one season, the longtime MLB outfielder has been on the Oakland staff for a while. Kotsay originally signed on as bench coach over the 2015-16 offseason. After two years in that capacity, he bounced to quality control coach for a few seasons before taking over third base coaching duties last winter.

Now, Kotsay’s in position to oversee a dugout for the first time. His taking over the managerial chair in Oakland this winter would’ve seemed completely improbable just a few months ago. Longtime A’s skipper Bob Melvin — generally regarded as one of the better managers around the league — remained under contract after the team exercised a 2022 option on his services in June. Yet Oakland brass eventually granted Melvin permission to explore opportunities elsewhere, and the three-time Manager of the Year fielded inquiries from the Padres. San Diego and Melvin finalized a three-year deal in early November, leaving Oakland on the hunt for a new dugout leader for the first time in over a decade.

Melvin’s departure was nothing short of shocking. Once the dust was settled, however, it became clear that Kotsay was as strong a candidate as anyone to succeed him. Not only has the latter spent the past six seasons taking on various roles in Oakland, he spent the 2014 campaign as a special assistant in the Padres’ front office and logged the following year as the Friars’ hitting coach.

That’s a wide array of experience, particularly considering Kotsay’s not that far removed from hanging up his spikes. The ninth overall pick in 1996 coming out of Cal State Fullerton, Kotsay made his big league debut with the Marlins a little more than a year after his draft day. He’d appear in the majors in each of the next sixteen seasons, continuing his playing career all the way through 2013.

Kotsay appeared with seven different organizations during his MLB career, including two separate stints in San Diego and four years (2004-07) with the A’s. That stretch included a .314/.370/.459 showing in his first year in the Bay Area that stands out as one of the better seasons of his career. Oakland’s current top two front office decision-makers — executive vice president Billy Beane and general manager David Forst — were already in key positions with the A’s during that time, so Kotsay’s original stint in the organization likely laid the foundation for the key post-playing roles he’d eventually assume.

While Kotsay has yet to manage at any level professionally, he’s long been viewed as a viable candidate. By 2015, he’d been mentioned as a possibility to lead the Padres’ clubhouse on an interim basis after the firing of Bud Black, although that role eventually went to Pat Murphy. By the 2019-20 offseason, he was garnering consideration from clubs to land a managerial role on a permanent basis. He reportedly sat down with each of the Giants, Pirates, Astros and Red Sox that winter but didn’t ultimately land a gig. Last year, he interviewed with the Tigers for the position that eventually went to A.J. Hinch, but he’ll now get his opportunity with the franchise he arguably knows as well as any.

Aside from Kotsay, the A’s reportedly considered bullpen coach Marcus Jensen and hitting coach Darren Bush as possible internal options. Oakland also looked into Rays’ bench coach Matt Quatraro, Red Sox’s bench coach Will Venable and Astros’ bench coach Joe Espada. With the A’s the last team of the offseason to finalize their managerial situation, each of that group will have to wait at least one more year in the pursuit of their own first managerial nods.

Kotsay’s first order of business figures to be nailing down the coaching staff, which he and the front office can embark upon during the lockout. Once the transactions freeze is lifted, the A’s appear to be in for a rather significant roster overhaul. The front office is always operating under a tight budget due to payroll restraints, and reports have suggested for months that the A’s could trade key players (i.e. Matt Olson, Matt Chapman, Chris Bassitt, Sean Manaea, Frankie Montas) in an effort to reduce costs. Indeed, reports suggested Melvin’s $4MM salary may have been part of the reason the A’s allowed him to head to San Diego in the first place, although it’s likely the organization’s affinity for their longtime skipper was also a factor.

The specific form the restructure takes won’t be known until there’s a new CBA in place. Yet it’s likely Kotsay and his staff will be tasked with leading a club that looks very different, both from last year’s 86-win squad and the roster as currently constructed. That could make for a tough challenge for a first-year skipper, but the front office clearly believes in Kotsay’s ability to lead the franchise through that transition.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Athletics “Closing In” On Mark Kotsay As Manager?

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Now that the Mets have hired Buck Showalter, the Athletics are the last team still looking for a new manager, but Oakland’s search may also be nearing an end.  According to MLB Network’s Jon Heyman, the team is “closing in on a managerial hire,” and the Athletics’ “focus appears to be on Mark Kotsay” as Bob Melvin’s successor.

Kotsay has been a member of Oakland’s staff for the last six seasons, working as the third base coach in 2021 after previously working as a quality control coach and bench coach.  He is one of three internal candidates known to be under consideration for the managerial vacancy, along with hitting coach Darren Bush and bullpen coach Marcus Jensen.  From outside the organization, the A’s had interest in Astros bench coach Joe Espada, Rays bench coach Matt Quatraro, and Red Sox bench coach Will Venable (Espada and Quatraro were also finalists for the Mets job).

When Melvin left the A’s to become the Padres’ new manager, speculation immediately arose that Kotsay was a contender and perhaps even a favorite to become the Athletics’ new skipper.  Kotsay has previously been a managerial candidate for the Tigers, Giants, Pirates, Red Sox, and Astros over the last two-plus years, and he even received some consideration as the Padres’ interim manager back in 2015, after Bud Black was fired and when Kotsay was working as San Diego’s hitting coach.

Kotsay is probably best remembered by fans for his 17 seasons as a player with seven different teams from 1997-2013, including a stint with the A’s for four of those seasons.  While not quite as recently retired as some of the other players-turned-managers hired in recent years, Kotsay is still only 46 years old, and not all that far removed from his playing days.  He also brings some front office experience, as Kotsay worked as a special assistant with the Padres in 2014.

If the A’s did indeed hire Kotsay, it would provide some continuity for a roster that might look quite different come Opening Day.  The A’s are known to be open to trading several of their top players due to escalating arbitration costs, and while this doesn’t necessarily mean Oakland will embark on a fire sale or even abandon the hope of contending in 2022, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Billy Beane and company swing several deals once the lockout is over.  Depending on when exactly the lockout ends, this could lead to something of a frenzied situation in the Athletics’ Spring Training camp, which would only add to the challenge for a first-time skipper.  Neither Kotsay or any of the other five known candidates have ever managed at the MLB level.

Latest On Athletics’ Manager Search

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TODAY: Espada’s interview has taken place, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reports (Twitter link).

DECEMBER 6: In addition to the recently-documented Matt Quatraro, The Athletic’s Britt Ghiroli verified five other managerial candidates for the vacant Oakland skipper position. Included in the current group of candidates are a number of names already within the Oakland organization— third base coach Mark Kotsay, bullpen coach Marcus Jensen, and hitting coach Darren Bush. Rounding out the group are Boston bench coach Will Venable and Houston bench coach Joe Espada. Half of the group (Quatraro, Kotsay, and Venable) has already interviewed, with the remaining half expected to interview soon.

After 11 seasons of .528 ball under Bob Melvin, it makes sense for Oakland brass to look to Melvin’s cohorts for a successor. Kotsay is likely the most familiar name among the internal candidates, as he is a 17-year veteran and played for seven different teams during his lengthy career. Dating back to 2014 Kotsay has assumed a number of Major League roles, accumulating the titles of hitting coach, bench coach, quality control coach, and third base coach. Kotsay is light on managerial experience but is no stranger to the managerial rumor mill, being linked to recent searches conducted by Houston, Boston, and Detroit.

A former catcher, Jensen was no stranger to the big leagues either, appearing in 7 Major League seasons for as many teams. Jensen has been in the Oakland organization since 2007, serving as a hitting coach and manager for several of Oakland’s minor league affiliates. He’s served as an A’s coach at the game’s highest level since 2014.

Bush is a baseball veteran as well, though has seen a notable chunk of his playing and coaching days come on the indie ball circuit. Since joining Oakland’s minor league ranks as a coach in 2004, Bush has accrued a good deal of managerial experience at the lower levels. His consistent success as a minor league manager led to a Major League promotion, where Bush has served as a bullpen or hitting coach since 2013.

Like Kotsay, Espada has been a fixture in managerial candidate discussions for years. The Houston coach and former second-rounder has seen his fair share of success over the past four years, recently piquing the interest of the Giants, Rangers, and Cubs.

Venable is a veteran of 9 Major League seasons, including an impressive 20-20 campaign in 2013 for the Padres. Since his retirement, Venable has worked in advisory and coaching positions for the Chicago Cubs. Venable hopped over to the Red Sox organization in 2020 and served as the bench coach for this year’s resurgent Boston club. Like others on this list, Venable has turned heads as a potential manager for years, drawing interviews for recent Houston and San Francisco vacancies.

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