Taylor Smith In Lead For A’s GM Job?

The Athletics have been in the market for a new front office leader since they parted with longtime general manager David Forst on Aug. 7. The A’s have since identified several candidates to succeed Forst, but if they had their way, Phillies president of business operations Sam Fuld would have taken the reins. Fuld, a former A’s outfielder, rejected an offer to become their president of baseball operations last week. While the Athletics haven’t hired anyone since Fuld turned them down, Red Sox senior vice president and assistant general manager Taylor Smith may be emerging as the frontrunner for the A’s GM position. The team is seemingly “focused on” Smith, Jon Heyman of the New York Post writes. Smith, who interviewed with the A’s nearly a month ago, began his career as an analyst in the Rays’ research and development department in 2018. He rose to director of predictive modeling before the Red Sox poached him from their AL East rivals two years ago. Smith is now one of four AGMs in Boston, which also has Raquel Ferreira, Eddie Romero and Michael Groopman underneath chief baseball officer Craig Breslow. The A’s also spoke with Groopman regarding the GM gig, though it appears his colleague Smith has the inside track. Smith and Cardinals assistant GM Rob Cerfolio were reported as the finalists last week, but the latter is expected to stay in St. Louis. A’s assistant GM Billy Owens, former Astros GM James Click, ex-Nationals president of baseball ops Mike Rizzo, Cubs AGM Jared Banner and Brewers AGM Matt Kleine are the other known candidates. Dan Feinstein, another of the A’s assistant GMs, took over on an interim basis upon Forst’s ouster. However, Feinstein is not in the running for the full-time role. Photo courtesy of Peter Aiken, Imagn Images View Comments (1)