Athletics general manager David Forst has overseen baseball operations for the club since the 2022-23 offseason, when longtime GM Billy Beane
moved into an advisory role. Details surrounding Forst’s contract never went public, but
Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports that Forst’s current deal is expiring at the end of the season. Forst and owner John Fisher have been discussing his future, Rosenthal adds. It’s not clear whether an agreement is close, but at the very least, talks on a new contract suggest that Fisher isn’t pursuing a change outright and is amenable to keeping Forst aboard.
The 49-year-old Forst has been with the A’s organization since 2000. He
told the San Francisco Chronicle’s John Shea in 2024 that there was “not a thought that I wouldn’t be in this for the long run,” referencing the team’s pending move to Las Vegas, which they hope will come to fruition in 2028. Two more years playing their home games in West Sacramento’s Sutter Health Park — home of the Giants’ Triple-A affiliate — remain before that possibility can come to pass.
Prior to serving as general manager, Forst was an assistant general manager and, prior to that, the team’s coordinator of pro scouting. He’s a Harvard grad who played four years in college and another two years in the independent Frontier League before pursuing a career in scouting and baseball operations.
For years, Forst was Beane’s top lieutenant. Since taking the reins in the baseball operations department, the A’s have been limited in terms of free agent acquisitions. They’ve trafficked exclusively in low-cost, one- and two-year contracts with the notable exception of
Luis Severino’s franchise-record (at the time) $67MM contract. The first season of that three-year pact didn’t go as hoped, though the weighty nature of the contract was at least in part due to ownership’s need to spend heavily enough to retain its status as a revenue-sharing recipient. Fisher already had that status revoked once in the past and was only reinstated as a recipient at the beginning of the 2022-26 collective bargaining agreement. The A’s
reportedly made a run at bringing
Sean Manaea back prior to signing Severino.
The A’s have been far more active on waivers and the trade market under Forst. His ascension to head of baseball operations was surely set on Nov. 17 when the A’s claimed
Brent Rooker, for instance, though the front office shuffle wasn’t formally announced until the following day. Forst was in the GM chair for acquisitions of outfielder
JJ Bleday (for
A.J. Puk), left-handers
Jeffrey Springs and
Jacob Lopez (for
Joe Boyle, minor leaguers and a Competitive Balance draft pick), and righty
Mitch Spence (in the Rule 5 Draft). He’s had some success with low-cost bullpen pickups as well, including
Justin Sterner,
Michael Kelly and
Elvis Alvarado — each claimed off waivers.
More recently, Forst oversaw a pair of deadline deals: a minor trade sending outfielder
Miguel Andujar to Cincinnati and a blockbuster deal sending star closer
Mason Miller to the Padres in a package that netted young shortstop
Leo De Vries — widely considered one of the five to ten best prospects in all of baseball. That swap also netted rotation prospects
Braden Nett and
Henry Baez, as well as reliever
Eduarniel Nunez.
Of course, Forst was surely heavily involved in prior roster decisions even when Beane had final say over baseball operations. He’s been an integral part of the Athletics’ front office for more than two decades.
Some fans may want to see the club go outside the organization to bring in fresh voices, but Forst deserves credit for the team’s promising core of young hitters. He signed Rooker to an extension this past spring and did the same with 25-year-old outfielder
Lawrence Butler, who’s enjoyed a 20-20 season in 2025. Forst was general manager when the A’s selected likely AL Rookie of the Year
Nick Kurtz with the fourth pick in the 2024 draft and took breakout shortstop
Jacob Wilson with their 2023 first-rounder. He was a prominent front office figure when the club acquired
Shea Langeliers in the
Matt Olson trade. With Kurtz, Rooker, Butler, Langeliers, Wilson and 2020 first-rounder
Tyler Soderstrom (who’s had his own 2025 breakout), the lineup for the A’s looks quite formidable — particularly if Bleday can rebound to his 2024 levels.
The A’s have clearly had their share of missteps along the course of their current rebuild, and while Forst didn’t have final say on all of the trades that haven’t panned out (e.g.
Matt Chapman, Manaea,
Chris Bassitt) he was a key figure in those decisions all the same. The Severino deal is probably one the A’s would like back, too, just as they’d surely prefer to undo the trade sending righty
Chad Patrick to the Brewers for
Abraham Toro (which occurred with Forst at the helm).
No front office leader is without deals and decisions on which they’d prefer a mulligan, though. Forst has nearly three decades of rapport established with Fisher and other key A’s figures, and though there’s still a clear need for pitching help, the young bats do give the A’s some reason for optimism. Add in that the A’s are 40-31 dating back to July 1, and Forst has plenty going for him as he looks to secure a new contract — possibly one that extends into the team’s relocation to Nevada.
