Manager gets 1-year extension
The A’s core young group of players, the bunch the team is building around, will have its manager in place through at least 2019.
Oakland announced Thursday that manager Bob Melvin’s deal has been extended through 2019, which puts him in line him with vice president of baseball operations Billy Beane and general manager David Forst.
“It puts me on the same timetable as Billy and David and we’ve been together for a while as a group,” Melvin said. “So that makes me feel particularly good. But if it was one day or 10 years, it doesn’t affect the way I do my job here . ... I appreciated that everyone has enough faith in me to keep me around for another year.”
Beane said that it was important to keep the leadership group together and he lauded the job Melvin has done in the time of transition for the team. “We couldn’t have a better man for the position,” Beane said. “The great thing about Bob is he had a veteran team and handled it
brilliantly, and he has the ability to handle younger players. They feel comfortable around him.”
Melvin, who was the American League Manager of the Year in his first full season with Oakland in 2012, is 536532 since becoming the A’s interim manager on June 9, 2011. His 536 wins are the third most in Oakland history behind Tony La Russa (798) and Art Howe (600).
“It’s great,” shortstop Marcus Semien said of Thursday’s news. “We know he’s got our backs.”
This year, Melvin, who is from Menlo Park and played at Cal, became the 64th manager with 1,000 major-league wins, and his team now has a group of youngsters expected to be the nucleus of a contender within a few years.
“I think we’re moving in the right direction, definitely,” Melvin said. “I’m really excited about the potential we have here. You’ve seen it in the second half and you’ve certainly seen it in September.”
“Obviously, we love playing for Skip. He handles players so well, he’s so even-keeled,” rookie Chad Pinder said. “If he needs to say something, he will, but ultimately, he just lets us play. All of us really, really do enjoy playing for him . ... It’s really reassuring.”