A's evaluating candidates to fill GM vacancy left by David Forst's departure

What happened

The Athletics are evaluating candidates to fill the general manager vacancy created by David Forst's departure, per MLB.com's Martín Gallegos. No appointment has been announced, and the search remains ongoing.

Why it matters

A general manager search is, in the most literal sense, a search for the person who will conduct all the other searches — for players, coaches, and the organizational philosophy that ties them together. For a franchise that finished 64-98 and is now rebuilding its front office alongside its roster, the hire carries unusual weight. Whoever steps into Forst's role will inherit a club that has already begun making staff decisions around them.

That last part is worth noting. A week removed from the season's end, the Athletics have already parted ways with assistant hitting coach Chris Cron and quality control coach Marcus Jensen, per earlier reporting. Those moves happened before a new GM is in place, which means the incoming executive will arrive to find some of the furniture already rearranged. Whether that complicates or simplifies the job is a question the candidates themselves are presumably working through.

Who is being considered?

Per a Posterior Wire item from earlier this week, the Athletics' search has advanced to include Brewers assistant general manager Matt Kleine and Cardinals assistant general manager Rob Cerfolio among the candidates being evaluated. That same reporting noted that Cerfolio is expected to remain in St. Louis, which would narrow the field if that holds. Neither candidate has been announced as the selection, and the search, as Gallegos reported, is still in the mulling stage.

Candidates drawn from assistant general manager roles at other organizations represent a familiar pattern in front-office searches: clubs tend to look for executives who have operated close to the top of a decision-making structure without yet having run one themselves. Whether the Athletics ultimately hire from that tier, look internally, or pursue a different profile entirely remains unconfirmed.

The numbers

The incoming GM will inherit a club that went 64-98 (.395) this season, finishing 4th in the AL West, 17 games behind the division leader. The Athletics were eliminated from both the division race and the Wild Card race, and they enter the offseason ranked 11th in the Wild Card standings, 20.0 games relative to the cut line. The team dropped its last two games of the season, closing on a two-game losing streak.

Those numbers are not a verdict on whoever takes the job — they are the baseline. A 64-98 record is a starting point, not a ceiling, and the front office that assembles next year's roster will be working from a clean sheet in several respects. But the numbers do clarify the scope of the assignment. This is not a club that needs a tweak; it needs a plan, and the GM search is the first step in articulating one.

Where the club stands

At 64-98, the Athletics sit 4th in the AL West with the season complete. The postseason is not a factor — the club was eliminated from both the division and Wild Card races before the final week. The front office now turns entirely to the offseason, with the GM vacancy as the most consequential open item on the organizational ledger.

The coaching staff is also in transition. The departures of Cron and Jensen, reported across multiple outlets over the past several days, leave openings on the bench that will presumably be filled in coordination with — or by — whoever is eventually named general manager. It is a reasonable question whether the club will wait for a GM hire before completing the coaching staff, or whether some of those decisions will proceed in parallel.

On the player side, Athletics right-hander Seth Johnson underwent left knee surgery and is targeting a return for spring training, per reporting from earlier this week. That is the kind of roster context a new GM will need to absorb quickly: a pitching asset on the mend, a timeline that runs to the spring, and a camp that will arrive faster than the calendar suggests.

What we don't know yet

The list of what remains unconfirmed is, at this stage of a GM search, longer than what is known. No hire has been announced. The full candidate pool has not been reported. The timeline for a decision has not been made public. Whether the club will conduct formal interviews, how many candidates are under serious consideration, and what specific profile the ownership group is prioritizing — none of that is in the material.

The Cerfolio caveat is worth flagging again: the earlier reporting indicated he is expected to stay with the Cardinals, which would represent one candidate effectively removing himself from consideration before the process concludes. That kind of attrition is normal in front-office searches, but it does mean the picture could look different by the time a hire is made.

What to watch

The GM hire is the story, and it will remain the story until an announcement is made. Once a name is in place, the next layer of questions opens up: what does the new GM do with the coaching staff vacancies, how does the club approach the Rule 5 draft and the 40-man roster decisions that come with it, and what is the organizational posture heading into what figures to be a significant offseason.

Matt Kleine's status in Milwaukee and Rob Cerfolio's expected decision to remain in St. Louis are both threads worth following. If Cerfolio does stay with the Cardinals, the Athletics will need to look elsewhere, and the shape of the search could shift accordingly.

The Seth Johnson recovery timeline — targeting spring training — gives the new GM one concrete early marker: a pitcher expected to be available when camp opens, assuming the recovery proceeds as hoped. That is a small but real piece of the puzzle the incoming executive will be assembling from the moment they walk in the door.

For now, the Athletics are evaluating. The desk will update when there is something more definitive to report.