Athletics general manager David Forst receives a new contract for next season

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Athletics general manager David Forst received a new contract for next season, when he will continue steering the club through transition in California's capital region while waiting for a planned relocation to Las Vegas in 2028.

“I will be back in 2026,” Forst said Tuesday during an end-of-the-season video call.

The A's finished 76-86 playing their first year in West Sacramento, California, getting seven more wins than in a 69-93 finish in 2024, their final season in Oakland.

“We had a lot of success to be very proud of in 2025,” Forst said.

Forst, 49, has been general manager since 2015 and with the A's organization since 2000. He has overseen much transition for a low-budget franchise that is trying to build with more longer contracts ahead of the move to Las Vegas.

Forst said he has had regular conversations with ownership about continuing that model of “locking guys up.”

“We feel really good about the foundation," he said.

Last year featured angry, heartbroken fans, small crowds and even reverse boycotts during which tens of thousands flocked to the team's former home, the Oakland Coliseum. Chants of “Sell the team!” were commonplace as fans urged owner John Fisher to sell rather than relocate the team to West Sacramento for three seasons as a new ballpark is built in Las Vegas.

Forst is a 1998 graduate of Harvard who was the longtime right-hand man of then-executive Billy Beane during the A's “Moneyball” analytics movement that caught on elsewhere.

“I’m as optimistic about this team, this organization, this system and the talent in the system as I have been in a long time," Forst said.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb