The Athletics finalized the hiring of their new president of baseball operations, Taylor Smith, on Monday. At Smith’s introductory press conference, owner John Fisher suggested they could also hire a general manager to work as the #2 front office executive (link via Martín Gallegos of MLB.com).

That’s an increasingly common front office structure around MLB. The A’s had gone that route when Billy Beane and David Forst were the top two in the hierarchy. That changed at the end of the 2022 season when Beane transitioned to an advisory role and turned baseball operations autonomy to his longtime lieutenant. Forst ran the front office for three and a half seasons. Fisher made a change at the beginning of August when it became clear they were en route to a fifth straight losing season.

While many GM changes presage a move in the manager’s office, that’s not going to be the case with the A’s. In February 2025, the team signed Mark Kotsay to an extension that runs through the ’28 campaign with a club option for ’29. Smith expressed his excitement about working with the sixth-year skipper, saying Kotsay “seems like someone who is hungry for all the information (the front office) can get him, and I think it’ll be a great partnership.”