A's top general managers: Gallegos' take
No one loves a good debate quite like baseball fans, and with that in mind, we asked each of our beat reporters to rank the top five players by position in the history of their franchise, based on each player’s career while with that club. These rankings are for fun and debate purposes only. If you don’t agree with the order, vote in the Twitter poll for your favorite at this position.
Here is MLB.com’s ranking of the top five general managers in A’s history, as selected by Martín Gallegos.
• A's all-time team: C | 1B | 2B | 3B | SS | LF | CF | RF | DH | RHP | LHP | RP | MGR
1) Sandy Alderson, 1983-97
A graduate of Harvard Law School, Alderson didn’t come from a baseball background. Once he was hired by the A’s in 1981, he looked for alternative ways to evaluate players, eventually turning to advanced analytics to pave the way for his successor Billy Beane and many other analytics-driven front offices that now hold a strong presence in today’s game.
Named the A’s general manager at age 35, Alderson hired Tony La Russa as manager in 1986. The move was the beginning of a powerhouse assembled by Alderson in the coming years through savvy free-agent signings like Dave Stewart and trades for Dennis Eckersley, Bob Welch, Storm Davis and Rickey Henderson. These moves came in addition to Alderson’s scouting department hitting on Draft picks like Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco just a couple of years earlier.
Loaded with talent, the A’s would capture three straight AL pennants from 1988-90, including a World Series sweep of the Giants in ’89. After a postseason exit in the American League Championship Series in ‘92, however, the A’s slowly lost their stars through free agency or trade in the coming years. Still, Alderson’s successful run and ability to revolutionize front-office thinking is strong enough to top this list. He returned to the organization in 2019, currently holding the position of senior advisor to baseball operations, after stints with the Mets and Padres and a role in the Commissioner’s Office.
2) Billy Beane, 1997-2015
After eight years as Alderson’s understudy, Beane was handed the reins as GM of a club steadily losing its big names. Not only was Beane able to keep the ship afloat, but he also took the analytics-driven model of evaluating players laid out by his predecessor and pushed it to a higher level. Despite constant financial constraints, many Draft picks from Beane’s time as assistant GM -- such as Barry Zito, Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder, Jason Giambi and Eric Chavez -- reached the Majors to form one of the strongest clubs in baseball in the early 2000s. Beane’s clubs made the postseason in eight of his 18 seasons as GM. Now executive vice president of baseball operation for the A’s, Beane continues to play a prominent role in constructing teams that can play ball on a budget, like the two that have earned AL Wild Card Game berths each of the past two seasons.
3) Connie Mack, 1901-50
In addition to managing and having part ownership of the Philadelphia A’s, Mack was also the club’s treasurer, thus performing the duties we associate with today's GM role. He assembled a couple of dynasties over the longest tenure in North American professional sports history by a coach or manager. Mack put together the “$100,000 infield” comprised of Stuffy McInnis, Eddie Collins, Jack Barry and Frank “Home Run” Baker. The group spearheaded an A’s dynasty that won three World Series titles in four years from 1910-13. Jimmie Foxx, Lefty Grove and Mickey Cochrane were among several Hall of Famers who starred on Mack’s clubs, which captured the AL pennant nine times and won five World Series titles.
4) Charlie Finley, 1961-80
Finley may not have been the most popular figure in A’s history, but in his time as the club’s owner -- who was also the primary decision-maker on the baseball side of things -- the A’s went through their most dominant run in Oakland history. Vida Blue, Catfish Hunter, Rollie Fingers, Sal Bando and Reggie Jackson were among the bevy of homegrown stars developed in the Finley era that saw the A’s capture three straight World Series titles from 1972-74.
5) David Forst, 2015-present
Forst had multiple opportunities to take GM jobs elsewhere over his 12 years as assistant GM, but he waited it out and eventually became Beane’s successor following the 2015 campaign. Under Forst, the A’s have reached the postseason in each of the past two years, developing a strong farm system that has already established a core of young stars at the Major League level, like Matt Chapman, Matt Olson and Jesús Luzardo.