The Athletics are widening their GM search and exploring new directions for the franchise.
The Athletics GM search continues. Former Houston Astros GM James Click, former Washington Nationals GM Mike Rizzo, and current A's assistant GM Billy Owens have all reportedly been interviewed for the role. Now two names from across the country are reportedly in the mix.
Joe Doyle is reporting that the A's have had conversations with Boston Red Sox SVP/AGMs Mike Groopman and Taylor Smith about the role.
Groopman was a baseball operations intern for the Cincinnati Reds in 2006 and then the New York Mets in 2007. He had a two-month stint as a labor relations intern at MLB before joining the Kansas City Royals as baseball operations assistant in 2008 as one of their first analytics hires.
In 2012 he was promoted to director of baseball analytics, and in 2015 added baseball operations to that job title.
Groopman then spent four years with the Milwaukee Brewers on the scouting side before joining the Red Sox as a senior vice president and assistant general manager in 2021.
Back in 2023 when the Red Sox were looking to fill their own GM vacancy, Groopman was one of the candidates they interviewed. Then-Cubs assistant GM Craig Breslow ended up with the role instead.
Smith's resumé is a little shorter, serving as an analysis associate with the Los Angeles Dodgers for four months in 2017 before leaping to the Tampa Bay Rays in 2018 where he served as baseball research and development analyst, then lead analyst, before serving three years as the director of predictive modeling.
From there, he went on to the Boston Red Sox in 2024, holding the same title as Groopman.
Smith's data background is particularly interesting given the A's need to build up its own analytics team as the franchise heads toward Vegas. When the team fired David Forst, Athletics Roundtable wrote that the move wouldn't mean anything unless they upgraded the systems around the role. With the A's unsure of how the new Las Vegas ballpark will end up playing, having those systems in place will be a big deal.
Hiring Smith would be a step in that direction.
In terms of direction, the A's have been all over the place with their approach for filling the GM spot. They have an internal candidate, which would signify continuity. There's Smith, who would represent innovation and development of the areas the team is currently lacking.
Then there's Rizzo, who has had plenty of success in the past with the Nationals, but when they were at their peak, he was allowed to be consistently among the leaders in payroll. He also has a good relationship with Scott Boras. Hiring Rizzo would signal money being spent when the A's get to Vegas.
The direction the A's choose with this hire will determine the path the franchise takes for the next few years.
