Athletics, David Forst Part Ways

The Athletics have fired general manager David Forst, per Ken Rosenthal and Charlotte Varnes of The Athletic. The club announced it as a mutually parting of ways. Assistant manager Dan Feinstein has been named interim general manager and the club says they will begin searching for a new GM.

Forst has been with the A’s for years and years. He was hired as a scout in 2000 and became assistant general manager in 2004, working under general manager Billy Beane. Beane got the GM job in 1997. Both Beane and Forst were promoted in 2015, with Beane getting the title executive vice president of baseball operations. Forst became the GM but still working under Beane.

The Beane/Forst front office had lots of success, at least intermittently, as they would occasionally rebuild. The A’s had a winning record from 2000 to 2006, with four postseason appearances in there. They were .500 or worse from 2007 to 2011 but then had three straight postseason appearances from 2012 to 2014. They were in the basement of the west from 2015 to 2017 and then made the playoffs three more times from 2018 to 2020.

They just missed the playoffs in 2021 and then kicked off another rebuild, trading away Matt Olson, Matt Chapman, Chris Bassitt, Sean Manaea, and others. In November of 2022, Beane transitioned into more of an advisory role, sticking with the club but leaving Forst in charge of the front office.

A lot has changed for the franchise since then. The city’s tenure in Oakland has come to an end as the franchise is planning to move to Las Vegas. They are temporarily playing in West Sacramento, sharing Sutter Health Park with the Sacramento River Cats, the Triple-A affiliate of the Giants. A new stadium in Vegas is being built with the plan of it being ready for Opening Day 2028.

Broadly speaking, the club’s plan has been to put together an exciting young core so that the club can be competitive by the time they get to Vegas. The results on that front have been mixed. The developments on the position player side of things have generally been encouraging. Brent Rooker, Lawrence Butler, Jacob Wilson and Tyler Soderstrom have all signed long-term extensions with the club. Others like Nick Kurtz and Shea Langeliers have established themselves as key pieces of the roster, though without long-term deals.

There has been less success on the pitching side of things. It doesn’t help that the club’s temporary home is particularly friendly for hitters but there is far less certainty in that area of the roster going forward. The team has a collective 5.44 earned run average this year, better than just the Rockies.

Despite some encouraging developments with regards to the lineup, the on-field results aren’t there. The club has been below .500 in the past four completed seasons and are trending towards a fifth. They are 45-70 this year. Only the Angels have a worse mark.

As the club is pivoting to this new era, it hasn’t been clear if the A’s and Forst were committed to staying together. It was reported in September that Forst’s contract was about to expire. He and the club worked out something to keep him around for 2026, without the details really being clear. In March of this year, Evan Drellich of The Athletic relayed that Forst and his family were comfortable in California, implying that he might not be keen on making the move to Vegas. Alden González of ESPN reports today that Forst never planned to move to Vegas.

More information on the reasoning might be forthcoming. One way or another, it’s a notable pivot point for the franchise. The move to Vegas has been in the works but now the front office is going to be run by someone other than the Beane/Forst duo for the first time in 30 years.

For now, that person will be Feinstein, but it seems that might be temporary. Perhaps the A’s could decide to keep Feinstein around for longer, though the franchise announced they will be starting a “comprehensive” search for a new GM.

Whether it’s Feinstein or someone else, the new front office leader will have challenges. In the short term, developing pitchers will be tough given the aforementioned conditions. Attracting free agents to help the club is also an issue as most players would prefer not to play their home games in a minor league park, which has lesser facilities than the other stadiums. Signing free agent pitchers is extra challenging since they would prefer to not play in a bandbox.

The club also doesn’t generally spend a lot on the player payroll. They have dialled that up a bit in recent years, seemingly to avoid a grievance that could jeopardize their revenue-sharing status, but they’ve still been towards the lower end.

Perhaps all these things will improve in 2028. The new stadium could be less pitcher-friendly. Ownership could crank up spending in 2028 to capitalize on the new market. Perhaps the new collective bargaining agreement will favor smaller clubs with greater revenue sharing and/or a cap/floor system. Time will tell on all of those things but there’s currently a lot of uncertainty for an organization that is currently adrift in a few different ways.