RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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The Athletics and general manager David Forst have mutually parted ways, the ballclub announced Friday. This comes amid a season that took a disappointing turn in the last two months.
"The Athletics announced today that the club and general manager David Forst have mutually agreed to part ways," the Athletics said in a release. "Assistant general manager Dan Feinstein has been named interim general manager for the remainder of the 2026 season. The A's will begin a comprehensive search for the next general manager."
"David has been an integral part of the A's and our success for nearly three decades," said A's owner John Fisher. "His leadership, dedication and commitment to this team have helped shape our baseball operations department and position us for the future. We are grateful for everything David has done for our organization."
The A's had higher expectations this season after losing a combined 393 games in the four previous years. Some people expected them to contend for a playoff spot, and they started the season by making good on their promise. They were in first place in the AL West for a good portion of April and May and were last .500 when they were 38-38 after a win on June 19. In a thin AL, they were in playoff position at that time. Since then, however, the A's have gone an MLB-worst 7-32, which is 7 ½ games worse than any other team in baseball. The A's, despite owning the third-worst record in baseball, had a quiet trade deadline in what was a seller's market .
The A's are currently in a transition period, playing their games in Sacramento after having left Oakland in 2024. They are awaiting a relocation to Las Vegas. Their new ballpark is under construction and is set to open in 2028.
They were a playoff team from 2018-20 and then won 86 games in 2021 before Forst was forced to oversee a teardown of the roster as ownership looked to bottom things out before moving out of Oakland.
Forst, 50, has spent his entire front-office career with the A's. After a brief stint as a minor-league player, Forst joined the A's as a scout in 2000 at age 24. He became assistant general manager in 2004 and was named general manager in 2015, with Billy Beane being elevated to executive vice president of baseball operations. With Beane moving more toward a hands-off role as senior advisor in November of 2022, Forst became the top baseball decision-maker for the ballclub.
"It was truly an honor to spend the last 27 years with the A's, especially the last 11 as the GM," said Forst in a statement. "This organization is full of incredibly talented, devoted and good people, and I am lucky to have worked alongside them for so long."
Here are five questions facing the organization as it moves forward, notably for the next A's general manager.
Kurtz, the fourth overall pick in the 2024 draft, has all the makings of a franchise centerpiece slugger. He's on the injured list right now, but is only 23 years old and in 216 career MLB games has hit .275/.389/.557 (156 OPS+). He hit 36 homers in 117 games last year and has 21 in 99 games this season.
He wouldn't hit free agency until after the 2030 season, but in moving to a new city and looking to build a fan base, having Kurtz locked up several years past that would be nice.
The A's have been notoriously frugal, going back to before the "Moneyball" days. No one needs to be reminded how often they've traded star players before those players hit free agency. They stripped things down to the threads before moving from Oakland. This season, the A's project to have a $96.9 million year-end payroll (via Cot's ), which will rank 25th of the 30 MLB teams .
Will the new digs in Vegas bring full crowds every night, and if so, will ownership provide more dollars for hopefully a competitive on-field product?
An extra layer here is how the new collective bargaining agreement looks. If there's a salary cap, surely a floor will be set as well. One of the proposals from the MLB owners that they made public so far includes a salary floor of $171.2 million, so the A's would obviously then be required to ratchet things up significantly.
The next step for the A's, if they're looking to add talent, would be via the pitching market in free agency. Perhaps Gage Jump is a long-term keeper while prospects like Jamie Arnold and Wei-En Lin pan out, but the A's don't appear to have many long-term frontline starters in the system now, which means they'd have to add from outside the organization.
In attempting to sign pitchers now, it's tough sledding. Sutter Health Park in Sacramento is a hitter-friendly yard and Luis Severino has even spoken publicly about how he doesn't like pitching there after signing a free agent deal.
The new boss needs to build a pitching staff to complement the core of position players like Kurtz, Tyler Soderstrom , Shea Langeliers and Brent Rooker in addition to their prized prospect, shortstop Leo De Vries .
The plan is for the A's to move into their new ballpark in Las Vegas -- on the former site of the Tropicana Hotel and casino -- for the start of the 2028 season. Ever since the franchise announced the move, there have been plenty of reports of delays.
There are pictures that can be found of the progress of construction and it's certainly starting to resemble a real ballpark. The latest report (from ESPN in May of this year) said the move was on schedule.
We know plenty about how altitude and hot weather and can help make ballparks into launching pads. Coors Field in Denver will remain the highest-altitude MLB ballpark by a significant margin, but the new A's ballpark will comfortably move into second. We know plenty about the heat in Vegas, though this ballpark will be indoors and climate-controlled.
There's still a distinct possibility the Vegas stadium will be one of the most hitter-friendly in all of baseball. CBS Sports' Mike Axisa did a deeper dive on the subject earlier this year .
If that's the case, will the A's still ha...
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