The Oakland A’s are retaining some key leaders, announcing long-term contract extensions for Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations Billy Beane, General Manager David Forst, and Manager Bob Melvin. For the A’s, the announcement comes after a successful 2018 season that saw the club finish 97-65 and reach the American League Wild Card Game.
“I’m proud of the tremendous success of our team under the leadership of Billy, David and Bob and am excited to have that continue for years to come,” said Oakland A’s Managing General Partner John Fisher.
Beane was elevated to his current post as Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations on Oct. 5, 2015 after serving 18 seasons as General Manager. Beane has been named Major League Executive of the Year by Baseball America two times (2002; 2013) and The Sporting News Executive of the Year twice as well (1999; 2012). He also earned MLB.com’s Greatness in Baseball Yearly (GIBBY) Award as the 2012 MLB Executive of the Year and the 2012 Legacy Awards’ Rube Foster Award as AL Executive of the Year, presented by the Negro League Baseball Museum.
Under his watch, the A’s have compiled a 1793-1607 (.527) record over the last 21 years, which is the fourth-best record in the American League and seventh best in all of baseball during that time frame. The A’s have six American League West titles (2000; 2002-03; 2006; 2012-13) and have secured three AL Wild Card spots (2001; 2014; 2018) during that span. His teams have posted 90 or more wins in nine of the last 19 years. The A’s nine postseason appearances since the 2000 season are sixth most among all Major League teams, trailing only New York-AL (15), St. Louis (12), Los Angeles-NL (10), Boston (10) and Atlanta (10).
Beane joined the A’s front office staff in 1990 as the club’s Major League advance scout. In 1993, former A’s president and general manager Sandy Alderson promoted him to Assistant General Manager. Alderson handed over his general manager’s duties to Beane on Oct. 17, 1997.
Forst will be entering his 20th season in the Athletics organization and his fourth as General Manager after being appointed to the position on Oct. 5, 2015. The A’s have made nine postseason appearances since he joined the organization in 2000, including four times in the last seven seasons. Prior to being named General Manager, he served 12 seasons as Assistant General Manager.
Along with Beane, Forst co-authored the acquisitions of every member of the 2018 A’s Wild Card team. Beginning with the drafting of Matt Olson (2012) and Matt Chapman (2014), continuing with the trades for Khris Davis (2016), Marcus Semien (2014), Jed Lowrie (2015), Stephen Piscotty (2017) and Blake Treinen (2017), all the way through the in-season trades for Jeurys Familia, Mike Fiers, and Fernando Rodney, the 2018 playoff team was built by Forst and Beane over the last 6 years through a myriad of transactions which led to the Club’s first playoff appearance since 2014.
The A’s nine postseason appearances since his arrival in 2000 season are sixth most among all Major League teams, trailing only New York-AL (15), St. Louis (12), Los Angeles-NL (10), Boston (10) and Atlanta (10). Since his appointment to his current General Manager role, the club has the sixth-best record in the American League, trailing only Boston, Houston, Cleveland, New York and Seattle.
Melvin is a two-time Baseball Writers’ Association of America Manager of the Year (2007 with Arizona & 2012 with Oakland) and a two-time Sporting News Manager of the Year (2007 with Arizona & 2018 with Oakland). The 2018 BBWAA Manager of the Year Award will be announced next month. He is just the third Athletics Manager to be named the Sporting News Manager of the Year, following Billy Martin (1981) and Tony La Russa (1988 & 1992).
Melvin led the A’s to the fourth best record in the Majors (97-65) and a postseason berth this season. It was Melvin’s fourth time leading the A’s to the postseason since joining the organization in 2011 and improved his record as A’s skipper to 634-599 (.514). His win total is the third most in franchise history behind Connie Mack (3,582) and Tony La Russa (798).
The 22-win improvement from 2017 to 2018 (75-87 in 2017) was the third time a Bob Melvin-managed team increased its win total by 20 or more games from the previous season. Among active managers, only Bruce Bochy (SF), Ned Yost (KC), and Clint Hurdle (PIT) have longer uninterrupted tenures with their current teams.
In 15 seasons as a Manager, Melvin has guided Seattle (2003-04), Arizona (2004-09) and Oakland (2011) to three division titles (2007, 2012, 2013) and two Wild Card appearances (2014, 2018