2024 MLB front office grades: No. 26, Oakland Athletics
In 2024, A's GM David Forst accomplished two tasks: finding a home, and keeping his team out of last place.
Recap: How the front office rating works
This is one in a series of assessments of the performances of front offices for the 2024 season. Each front office is given a score based on the total Wins Above Average of the players they either traded for, signed via free agency or extension, or promoted from their farm system, since the conclusion of the 2023 post-season.
A front office’s score also includes the total Wins Above Average of players traded away or lost to free agency since the end of the 2023 post-season. The front offices are being presented in order of their total value from No. 30 (worst) all the way to No. 1 (best).
These ratings do not necessarily reflect the final standings. Front offices are measured based only on the talent they acquired or lost during the past 12 months. Players on multi-year contracts, or already under team control, don’t count toward this rating.
No. 26, Oakland Athletics, David Forst, General Manager, -6.8
Give Forst’s Athletics a lot of credit for what they accomplished in 2024. First and most importantly, they found a place to play—however temporary—beyond 2024. That was sort of critical, even if their departure from Oakland proves to be wildly unpopular.
Then, in defiance of most every pre-season forecast, they actually finished ahead of somebody in the standings. They "only" lost 93 games; four teams, including the division-rival Angels, lost more.
These may not sound like major accomplishments, but by recent A's standards, they’re pretty noteworthy. Of course, the Athletics still have a long way to go as evidenced by Forst’s overall score, which was decisively negative.
Since the conclusion of the 2023 postseason, Forst’s front office made moves involving 54 major league players. That’s only mid-level churn relative to the rest of the league, suggesting that the small-market A’s may actually be developing a collection of players they like.
Numerically, the pluses and minuses nearly balanced out: 25 players delivered negative impact, 24 moves proved to be positive ones, and five were neutral by Wins Above Average. Forst’s grade suffers obviously because the negatives were worse than the positives were good. But, by comparison with his aforementioned expectations, his year was a plausible success.
Strapped with the limited financial resources that always hinder the Athletics, Forst turned to his farm system for help, and it produced reliever Mason Miller. He was as advertised, saving 28 games and covering 65 innings all while striking out 104 batters and posting a 2.49 ERA.
Then, the general manager turned to the free agency scrap pile to dredge up Osvaldo Bido, a former Pittsburgh Pirates reject. Bido made nine second half starts and threw 63 quality innings, which was good for 1.7 WAR.
Five most impactful Forst moves
Transaction | Net Impact (Wins Above Average) |
|---|---|
Acquired pitcher Ross Stripling in a trade with San Francisco | -1.8 |
Promoted rookie closer Mason Miller | +1.4 |
Signed free agent pitcher Osvaldo Bido | +1.2 |
Released pitcher Tayler Scott to free agency | -1.2 |
Signed free agent outfielder Daz Cameron | -1.1 |
When considering the performance of the A’s front office, economics and the team’s semi-orphan status combine to set the bar of expectations so low that it is almost impossible to fail. So, in the interests of accuracy, let the failures be noted with those stipulations in mind.
Especially in his judgment regarding bullpen assets, Forst struggled over the last calendar year. He let Scott go for nothing, only for the reliever to run to the Astros and play a key role in Houston's divisional title run. He sent Lucas Erceg to Kansas City at the trade deadline for three bits of nothing, and Erceg became that playoff team’s closer.
The departures of Scott and Erceg boosted their new teams’ performances by a total of +1.6 games.
His willingness to take Ross Stripling’s $15 million contract off the Giants’ hands in exchange for a minor leaguer in February was a triumph of enthusiasm over judgment. Stripling inherited the role of staff ace and promptly trashed it, going 2-11 with a 6.01 ERA in 14 starts, having the largest net impact on the team of anyone Forst acquired or sent away.
With the Athletics now headed for a layover in Sacramento before claiming permanent residence in Las Vegas, Forst will be tasked with building on his minor successes during a harsh transition period for the franchise.
Previous Rankings
The 2024 front office rating system: No. 30, Los Angeles Angels
2024 front office rankings: T-28, the Colorado Rockies and GM Bill Schmidt
27. Chicago White Sox, Chris Getz, senior vice president and general manager, -10.2
26. Oakland Athletics, David Forst, general manager, -6.8.
Next: 25. Detroit Tigers, Scott Harris, president of baseball operations, -5.3.
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