The A’s announced Friday that longtime executive vice president of baseball operations Billy Beane is transitioning into a new role — a senior advisor to managing partner John Fisher. He’ll “work closely with Fisher on strategic decisions,” per the press release, and will also “support the work of baseball operations now headed by general manager David Forst.”
“Billy is and will always be an Athletic,” Fisher said in a statement within today’s press release. “He is a trusted advisor to me and I look forward to continuing to work closely with him on strategic initiatives that impact our Club. This position at the ownership level allows Billy to pursue other non-baseball sporting interests while continuing to hold an important role with the A’s and me. I am also excited for David Forst to now serve as the head of baseball operations, while still continuing his long and successful partnership with Billy.”
Prior to this transition, Beane had been the longest-tenured baseball operations leader in the sport, having ascended to the post of general manager back in 1997. (That distinction now falls to Yankees GM Brian Cashman, who’s been running baseball ops in the Bronx since 1998.) Though Beane’s Athletics have never won a World Series, they’ve been a remarkably competitive club over the years in spite of working under some of the most stringent payroll restrictions in the game.
The A’s are one of three teams to never reach a $100MM payroll in a single season — arguably one of two, as the Pirates were a rounding error away from $100MM in 2016 when they had a $99.945MM. Only Oakland and Tampa Bay have never come within a stone’s throw of $100MM. The Athletics’ franchise-record Opening Day payroll was $92.2MM in 2019.
Despite rarely being able to keep his homegrown stars and what ostensibly appears to be an ownership-level aversion to extending pre-arbitration players on long-term contracts — the team’s most recent pre-arb extensions were Sean Doolittle in 2014 and Trevor Cahill in 2011 — Beane’s Athletics have reached the playoffs 11 times in a span of 25 years. Moreover, even amid the constant teardowns, rebuilds and transitional phases, the A’s never endured more than three consecutive losing seasons under Beane’s guidance.
“I’m incredibly proud of the 33 years I’ve spent here in Oakland, and I look forward to continuing with the A’s in this new role,” Beane said in his own statement. “I am eager to help guide the direction of the organization alongside ownership. If I have done anything well during my time at the A’s it is to create a succession plan, and no one is more prepared to take the helm than David. It has been a privilege to work alongside him for all these years and I look forward to continuing to be a resource for him.”
Forst, 46, has been with the Athletics since 2000, rising from the team’s scouting ranks to become an assistant general manager and, in conjunction with Beane’s promotion to EVP, the team’s general manager. He’s held that title since 2015, but Beane has remained atop the team’s baseball operations hierarchy until now — effectively serving in the same “president of baseball operations” role that’s become commonplace throughout the industry, albeit with slightly varied wording.
Like Beane, Forst has long been eyed by other clubs as a potential baseball operations hire, but he’s remained entrenched in Oakland in spite of interest from other organizations. The Mets and Angels were reported to have some interest back in the 2020-21 offseason, and the Twins held interest in Forst back in 2016. Forst declined to speak with all three teams, opting to instead remain in Oakland, where he’ll now be granted baseball autonomy after a 22-year climb through the front office ranks.
Should have been fired for trading Peña
Eh,needed a plot point for the movie.
Jim Leyland didn’t use him either.
Good luck Billy. Overrated by most but a solid baseball executive. I enjoyed the moneyball book and movie.
Overrated!? How? This dude has time and time again made something from almost nothing.
Not the only small market team having success. Hasn’t won a world series or even been to it. He’s done a fine job but no better than Tampa or Cleveland.
Which small market team recently won the WS again? I forget the standard for success with these limitations.
KC in 2015. That’s it really for small market champs since 1995.
Now let’s get this franchise moved to Las Vegas . New retractable stadium .
Ew
So now he’s just another Beane counter?
In all seriousness, congrats on continuing a solid career.
Beans is sneaking out through the back door.
So, more of Fishers horrible “business” as usual? Stop signing slap hitters you cheapskate morons.
John Fisher: Offer Aaron Judge $500M and see what happens, you absolute coward and fraud.
Judge would sign with Oakland for $330M in a heartbeat to be near his family.
He wouldn’t hit 60 homers playing at the Colliseum.
Outdated take: the ball was flying out there this year, 70+ power guys were eatinggg there this past season.
Nothing matters as long as this scumbag John Fisher is the owner
As if Lew Wolff was any better.
layventsky;
If Mr. Wolff hadn’t stepped in MLB would have moved that franchise 20-25 years ago.
Lew was just the face of ownership. Like Larry Baer is in SF. Lee owned like 3 percent of the team
Just tear down the Coliseum and build a new stadium in the parking lot. It’s big enough. Or just tear down Mt. Davis and let it look like it did before that criminal ruined what was once a beautiful ballpark
I had the gall to tell Billy in a Baseball Prospectus chat that I wanted the money back I paid for his rookie cards.
The 86 Donruss or the 87 Topps.
I just sold a batch of 10 of the 86 Donruss graded Gem Mint for $1250.
Still have 22 more. Wonder if the value will go up even more now?
Hard to find Gem Mint 87 Topps. It was that woodgrain “frame” and it was a terrible printing.
I bought a box of 250 of his Topps rookie back in 1998 and only 2 graded out 9.5.
Maybe worth more once he gets into the HoF as an exec. Hold. Had no idea it was worth that much. I was a big card collector for the late 80s and have unopened full sets.
Billy Beane is not getting into the Hall Of Fame in any capacity, other than as a visitor. If he even has that interest. There is certainly not a single A’s player from his tenure who’s been inducted into the Hall or will be.
You must be forgetting A’s legends Mike Piazza and Frank Thomas
Implication, an A’s developed and an A’s career HoF player….zilch in the Beane era. And as long as the current ownership is around it will remain that way.
Both Thomas and Piazza were passing through toward the end of their careers. A declining Thomas was signed as a free agent in ’06, had a comeback-style season with 39 HRs then left for ‘greener’ pastures in Toronto. Released by the Jays in early ’08, in April, the A’s brought him back for the rest of that season, his last one, and he added 5 more HRs to his career total. Piazza also played the final season of his 16 years in the bigs with the A’s in ’07, 8 HRs in 83 games and then he retired. Or the game retired him, just as it did Thomas.
It was a joke. As an A’s fan, I’ve been advocating for Beane’s removal for years. They desperately need new ownership and front office. This team has gotten lucky more than they’ve been good on pure talent
They were 86 Donruss. I pitched a bunch of cards before a move and that’s the only lot I regret tossing. But that’s the risk when they become managers or execs later. I think I paid $2 for 10 back when the cards came out.
Wow, 32 Gem Mint out of how many? I’ve never had any cards graded before. I know it’s not cheap. I agree that Topps were often off-center and marked with printing flaws compared to Fleer and Donruss.
I would guess he won’t make into the HOF without any rings or pennants. Also, cards from the 1980s were mass produced and aren’t worth much. If they are unopened factory sets from earlier in the decade, they may be worth a little bit. But baseballislife has the right idea of profiting with scarce top condition cards from a lot of ungradeds if you got the time and money for that.
Beane has been more focused on non-A’s issues for over a decade now. He couldn’t care less about this team or the fans. He like soccer more than baseball
and in that decade they made the playoffs 6 times.
Beane makes them contend without even trying
Division Series loss, Division Series loss, Wild Card game loss, Wild Card game loss, Wild Card game loss, Wild Card Series win (in quirky ’20 season), Division Series loss.
Not the type of success you’re looking for. But, Billy has said, his ‘stuff’ doesn’t work in the playoffs.
The story above said the A’s under his watch have never won a World Series. True. Hard to do that when they’ve never been to the World Series.
Bayball – I can do one better.
Oakland is the only team in the league to not have won an LCS game since 1992.
How do you go 30 freakin’ years without even winning ONE GAME in an LCS?
Yeah. A’sfaninUK referenced the six playoff appearances in the last 11 seasons, but so what? Just a bunch of early exits. That ’92 season was the last time the A’s were a playoff team pre-Beane. 2000-2003 they lost four Division Series in a row–all of them in painful fashion by losing game 5–before finally winning a LDS in ’06. Then they were swept by Detroit in the LCS. And that’s it. That’s all ‘moneyball’ has to show for Beane’s tenure. And you are right, not a single LCS game win. Just a lot of frustration, really.
It’s been 16 years since the A’s last played in an LCS, back in ’06. Their drought to get to the LCS is topped only by the White Sox, Twins and Mariners. It’s a bad record. Yet Beane seems to skate, media fawns over him. It gets old.
I’d still rather have the early exits compared to the slew of teams that were only good for one or two years. I don’t wanna know what’s it’s like to be a Royals fan and have a bad team for decades at a time.
Great, you’re better than the Royals. Yippee!
BayBall – There was an excellent article explaining how Beane’s “Moneyball” was a hoax.
To summarize it, their success in his early days was driven by three fantastic starting pitchers (Mulder/Hudson/Zito) and juiced up sluggers.
His teams were seriously flawed, very poor baserunners and very bad defense. His players lacked instincts and fundamentals.
All you need to do is look at the series they lost to the Red Sox, a lot of it was exposed right there.
case – In the past 8 years the Royals have two AL Championships and one World Championship.
During the same time period your team has won ONE postseason game.
I know which team I’d rather be a fan of during that time, and it’s certainly not yours.
Yes, sir Fever Pitch Guy. (Red Sox fan?)
Absolutely, Moneyball was just a sloganeering gimmick that made Beane some sort of exalted figure. Totally right about the Micheal Lewis book and subsequent film completely neglecting the most important aspect of the success of the early 00’s regular seasons; that outstanding trio of starters. The worst of the divisional playoff losses was the ’04 series against the Red Sox, with some of the craziest baserunning you will ever see. PED’ed up ball, and no attention to defense and the other little things that help win baseball games. (Unlike the early 70’s A’s, who had all of that stuff in spades.)
Moneyball’s a joke.
Another “hoax” part of it was how the A’s actually offered the exact same contract to Giambi as the Yankees did, but the Yankees added an option year. What if they didn’t though? Giambi stays in Oakland as a $120M guy and Moneyball never exists and the A’s probably win the WS the next year, as Hatteberg is still never as good as Giambi.
I will do you one further and drop the “Moneyball is just billionaire CEO propaganda that wrecked the way many fans watch the game, making them caring about player salaries for no reason at all” right here….
Yes, the A’s put that offer out for Giambi. But you just have to think New York, the Yankees, and how great they were then having won four titles already, and having just won another AL pennant. Get to wear pinstripes in the Big Apple, take it to the big stage. There was no allure like that in Oakland.
And Giambi basically had only one outstanding season for the Yanks, the first year in ’02. But they did not make it to the Series. They did in ’03, but his production dipped. Sure he slugged HRs in Yankee Stadium, but maybe the attractive short porch affected his swing. With the A’s he hit to all fields. Career BA with Oakland was .300, while it was .260 with the Yankees. The first year in NY he had a .314 average, but it went south on him after that and he had some rough patches there the next several seasons. Yes, long balls, that lots of guys were hitting in the PED-fueled era, but he was not the great hitter he had been with the A’s. Maybe the A’s dodged a bullet, who’s to say? Their major long-term signings in the Beane era failed badly, the Eric Chavez and Jerome Dye extensions. Anyway, the whole ‘moneyball’, and plaudits to Beane while other teams are passing them by and winning in the postseason, it’s just kind of weird.
It’s also odd that the Angels can’t make the playoffs with the 2 best players in the sport, but the A’s beating them all the time for playoff spots “doesnt mean anything”. Same for the ringless Mariners, who had nothing but first ballot HOFers play for them for no rings either.
I mean when you are being harder on the A’s for making the playoffs than you are for the Angels “Yankees of the west” who have been the worst-run team the entirety of Trouts career, its kind of a weird thing to hate Beane on.
Maybe that was to the A’s advantage, both the Angels and Mariners in the division. At least their fans did and have gotten to enjoy having Ichiro and Trout, though Ohtani is likely headed somewhere.
But if my team had to be bad for 20 years to get those two playoff runs? Definitely know which team I’d rather be a fan of.
Moneyball is just the name of a book about the increasing use of data science in baseball. Since just about every front office has followed this trend it’s probably safe to say that it was superior to the previous system of hiring a bunch of low to mediocre IQ retired players to make the decisions.
Ok so why does the OAKLAND A’s owner John Fisher still say “Moneyball means me being cheap and making the most personal profit”?
Is he gonna advise them to get a new owner? Because that’s what they really need. Even when they were the dominant team in baseball they never really drew a lot of fans. When is somebody going to get it? It doesn’t matter who runs the team, It’s gonna fail Due to lack of ownership investment and Not enough fans. Brutal
“Even when they were the dominant team in baseball they never really drew a lot of fans.”
You are correct.
Now…..
What does the owner have to do with that?
LOL
Umm…They led the league in attendance the last time they were THE dominant team in baseball. 1990
baseball-almanac.com/teams/athlatte.shtml
budgreen420;
They did not draw when Charlie Finley was the owner except for the year they dominated.
Beane is an owner. Read the quote from Fisher in the article.
“This position at the ownership level allows Billy to pursue other non-baseball sporting interests while continuing to hold an important role with the A’s and me.”
The art of mediocrity.
If they could just get that dude to stop banging the drums during the game, drives me nuts. Suzyn and John as well:)
Multiple percussionists, @Silas. (In terms of a solo guy, you’re probably thinking of Cleveland’s John Adams.)
Senior advisor to John Fisher! Congrats Billy, you have sunk to the lowest position in all of MLB. One scumbag deserves another.
eh. moneyball built a franchise but never ws winners. red sox took it to the next level with the x factor having the desire to win.
Moneyball the movie glaringly misses the rotation.
“red sox took it to the next level with the x factor having the desire to win.”
LOL
No. The Red Sox took it to the next level by constantly having one of the top payrolls in MLB.
Like competing with the Yankees to sign the most expensive free agents each year for 30 years had anything at all to do with Moneyball.
@Samuel Beat me to it. The Red Sox for a little while were able to combine moneyball with a huge payroll, hence the WS. God only know what’s happened to them in the last several years.
What a hilariously weird and wrong angle here:
“red sox took it to the next level with the x factor having the desire to win.”
Why did you say “having the desire to win” here and not “money”? lmao
Moneyball is an excuse for a owner to be cheap. And it’s a dis service to all Great A’s fans who have supported this francise. Did the A’s fans abandon the A’s when the dugouts were full of raw sewage? No!!!
They rushed down to Costco bulked up on TP and return the next day ready for Armageddon.
They’ve supported this francise. They’re loud. They’re crazy!!! But y’a gotta love em
I salute you A’s fans, all 1000 of you that show up night after night. Each of you going home with a foul ball.
I typically bought rookie cards in batches of 100 or 250. I bought 7 batches of that 86 Donruss rookie card, a total of 1000 cards for $396. I spent 20 times that having them graded. :_)
He had just become GM when I bought them and I figured if he was a good GM I might double my money in a decade.
Instead he became a legendary FO Exec and had a book and movie written about him. I’ve done pretty well on that investment.
I spent $91.8k on 1970s and 1980s rookie cards that year. $47k in 1999.
They were a better investment than the S&P500.
Isn’t mentioning Fisher and ” strategic decisions” in the same sentence an oxymoron?
‘Billy Beane is transitioning into a new role — a senior advisor to managing partner John Fisher. He’ll “work closely with Fisher on strategic decisions,” . . .’
I’m picturing two ladies with scissors hunting through the weekly Albertsons ad for coupons.
Long, long, long overdue. The A’s need to start winning. Under Beane, it wasn’t going to happen.
Frost will give the A’s just more of the same. The issue is ownership, has been for a loooong time.
Can’t win with an owner who is terrified of playing union-approved salaries to his employees. Slave owner Donald Sterling vibes from John Fisher when he does this, btw. “How can I get people to work for me for less?” bro, shut up and spend to win like everyone else. Cheaping out never works, Theo Epstein+money works.
Somebody has to have the lowest payroll, gang.