With the Athletics expected to make a GM decision sometime this week, more of the candidates are beginning to emerge in what has been a search that the team has held close to the vest since firing David Forst in August. 

On Tuesday morning, former A's outfielder and Philadelphia Phillies GM Sam Fuld was named as a candidate by The Athletic, along with Chicago Cubs assistant general manager Jared Banner. It later added to that report that Brewers assistant general manager Matt Kleine is part of the mix. 

The A's targeting someone from the Brewers is a fit that has made sense from the beginning of this process. Milwaukee operates in MLB's smallest market and is never a top-payroll team, but it has won the NL Central in five of the past six seasons and has led baseball in regular-season wins in each of the past two years. 

When the A's head to Las Vegas for the 2028 season, they will take the smallest-market designation from the Brewers, and ownership has shown over two decades it isn't going to be one of the highest-payroll clubs, so getting someone who knows how to maximize those dollars would benefit the team. 

Kleine has been with the Brewers since 2007, when he was hired to work in the scouting department. He was director of baseball operations from 2017 to 2019 and VP of baseball operations from October 2019 to November 2023, when he was promoted to his current role as assistant general manager. 

The report in The Athletic also mentions St. Louis Cardinals Assistant GM Rob Cerfolio as someone who has interviewed for the A's role but is expected to remain with the Cardinals.

By staying with St. Louis, Cerfolio would be considered an internal candidate for a promotion with the Cardinals, who have an opening under Chaim Bloom for their own GM role.

The team has not disclosed whether it is hiring one person for this open role, or whether the plan is to bring in someone as the team's president of baseball operations and then have a GM below them. Forst was technically the POBO of the A's, though he held the formal title of GM. 

Some teams have both; some have just the one that covers both roles, like Forst.

For a team like the A's that are looking to make progress quickly ahead of the planned move to Vegas in 2028, having one of each wouldn't be the worst idea. 

The lone internal candidate who has been linked to this search has been Assistant GM Billy Owens, who is well-regarded around the league. Promoting him to POBO to oversee the operation while bringing in an external candidate like Kleine would be an interesting approach.

Owens would know how to get things done specifically with the A's, while Kleine would be there to help improve how things function overall.

At the same time, the fact that Owens wasn't promoted to interim GM when Forst was fired may be the biggest red flag to this approach. If the team were setting him up for a larger role, you'd think that it would have handed him the keys on an interim basis first. 

The A's now have eight candidates who are publicly known, and we should know shortly which direction they end up choosing for the franchise.