A’s promote Beane, Forst despite worst record in AL

OAKLAND, Calif. _ The A’s made a couple moves on Monday that have been expected for a while, promoting Billy Beane to executive vice president of baseball operations and naming his chief lieutenant, David Forst, general manager.tmpplchld Reported in late July that the A’s were in the process of promoting Beane and Forst, the team’s structure and decision-making will mostly remain the same, although with the A’s having the sixth overall draft pick next June, Beane said he wants to reconnect with his roots in baseball scouting.tmpplchld Before that happens, however, Beane and Forst will explore ways to keep right fielder Josh Reddick and ace starter Sonny Gray in the organization long-term via contract extensions.tmpplchld Despite a 68-94 season that was the worst in the American League, A’s co-owner Lew Wolff said the disappointing results didn’t play into the promotions in a significant way. Beane took over as GM in 1998. Forst came aboard in 2000 and has spent 12 of his 16 seasons with the A’s as assistant general manager. Oakland has won six AL West titles in that span and made the playoffs two other times as a wild card.tmpplchld “You have to look at the sum total of their tenure and what they’ve accomplished as a whole,” Wolff told this newspaper. “I think you’ll find they’ve done well within our capabilities with our payroll, our small market position and our abysmal venue. These are two extremely bright individuals, both extremely dedicated.”tmpplchld Wolff pointed to the .533 winning percentage the A’s have during Beane’s 18 seasons, the sixth best in the majors during that stretch. The owner didn’t like suffering through a 94-loss season, but he puts that more on “bad luck and lots of injuries,” and sees it as a one-year aberration.tmpplchld “It all came together like a bad storm,” Wolff said. “Every day David and Billy and Bob (manager Bob Melvin) come together in their efforts to make us a winner. I couldn’t ask for more.”tmpplchld Beane said the new structure will allow him to devote more time to the A’s entire baseball operation, while Forst will take on more day-to-day responsibilities regarding trades and signings. The Giants made a similar change at the end of the 2014 season, when GM Brian Sabean and assistant Bobby Evans were promoted to the same respective roles as Beane and Forst.tmpplchld “I’d like to be more involved than I have been in the last few years as it relates to the draft and player development,” Beane said. “When Brian did the same thing in San Francisco, I think he kind of felt the same way. That’s sort of the grass roots of the business.”tmpplchld Beane and Wolff noted that Forst has had multiple opportunities to be a general manager elsewhere but has turned them down to stay in the Bay Area.tmpplchld “It’s the people here,” Forst said. “I’ve always wanted to stay here. Billy brought me in, and from day one included me in everything. And I wanted to be here. My family loves it here, so I’m thrilled to have this happen and know I’m going to be here for a while.”tmpplchld The rebuilding job they have won’t be easy. The A’s don’t know if Coco Crisp, limited to pinch-hitting the last six weeks by a neck injury, can be an everyday player again. They don’t know if they’ll be able to work out extensions with Reddick and Gray. They don’t know if starters Jarrod Parker and A.J. Griffin can return to form after missing two full seasons because of Tommy John surgery. They don’t know how quickly first-year starter Jesse Hahn will recover from elbow and forearm issues.tmpplchld What the A’s do know is that the massive turnover after the 2014 season didn’t work. Even so, Melvin seems to thinks there will be another substantial makeover heading into 2016.tmpplchld “The last couple of months were all about finding who was going forward with us,” Melvin said. “We feel like we have some significant pieces and with a few moves could bridge it pretty quickly.tmpplchld “We’re always looking to identify what we felt like the problems were and get better. When you lose as many games as we did, you don’t want to say it’s status quo going forward. We’ll look to make some changes, definitely.”tmpplchld Melvin would like a veteran starting pitcher and to retool a bullpen that had the worst ERA (4.63) in the American League and the lowest save total (28) in the majors. More than that, he’d like to see his starters come back healthy. When Gray went out the last week of the season with a hip injury that meant none of the A’s regular starters were healthy to end the season.tmpplchld Beane said the A’s aren’t trading any of their young players at Double-A and Single-A. Free agency, except in limited doses, has never been the A’s way.tmpplchld “For us to sustain success, we’re going to have to create a group of young players that’s going to be here for a number of years,” Beane said. “Trying to fill a hole for next year by using one of them is probably not a good long-term approach for us. We don’t want to rush them.”tmpplchld Still, changes are coming.tmpplchld Forst said the makeup of the 2016 bullpen “is an area we need to address.”tmpplchld “That most led to the record we had in April (9-14) and May (11-19),” Forst said. “It’s an area we need to build up.”tmpplchld ___tmpplchld (c)2015 The Oakland Tribune (Oakland, Calif.)tmpplchld Visit The Oakland Tribune (Oakland, Calif.) at www.insidebayarea.comtmpplchld Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.tmpplchld