5 MLB front office shakeups that could happen in 2022
By Bill Felber
5. Oakland Athletics
Team President Billy Beane is a god-like figure among those who brainstorm baseball strategies in MLB front offices these days. His right-hand man, general manager David Forst, has worked with Beane since 2016.
With good reason. Three different times Beane — once with Forst’s able assistance — has built the low-budget A’s up from scratch into a divisional powerhouse. Under Beane’s stewardship, Oakland won three divisional titles between 2000 and 2003, won two more in 2012-13, and qualified for postseason play annually from 2018 through 2020.
But never in Beane’s lengthy tenure have the Athletics looked as desperate as they look right now. Their .368 winning percentage entering play Thursday would, if it continues through season’s end, be the worst of Beane’s quarter-century tenure by a significant distance. Without a stadium plan, the team has no predictable revenue base with which to turn things around.
Three-quarters of the way through the home schedule, attendance in Oakland is under 9,000 per game. That’s alarming
Beyond that, Beane is running the team on an open-ended contract that can be terminated at any point. Forst’s contract expires at the end of 2023, a major red flag.
Even granting all of the above, given Beane’s established record his removal would still be a surprise. Less surprising, though, might be an ultimatum from ownership for structural change designed to appease a diminishing fan base that made Forst the fall guy.
This much seems certain. The situation in Oakland approaching the conclusion of 2022 appears to be more fraught with peril than it has been at any point in Beane’s tenure. That means nothing should be seen as a surprise.