Earlier this week, former Athletics outfielder and Stanford grad Sam Fuld emerged as a candidate to run the A's front office, and this weekend he has reportedly taken his name out of consideration for the role. 

Jeff Passan of ESPN reported that the A's offered him the role, but Fuld declined in order to remain with the Philadelphia Phillies, where he is the president of business operations and appears to be the one set to take over the team's front office when Dave Dombrowski retires. 

This decision could be a signal that Dombrowski's retirement is closer than some were expecting. 

For the A's, this is the second candidate who has taken himself out of the mix, with Fuld joining former Texas Rangers GM Jon Daniels, who took his name out of the running in late September. That is two top candidates who have removed themselves from the role, which opens questions about how desirable the position with the A's is to candidates.

Passan is also reporting that Red Sox SVP/AGM Taylor Smith has remained a top candidate for the A's. He was initially reported as a candidate back on September 17 along with Mike Groopman, who holds the same position with the Red Sox. 

Smith served as an analysis associate with the Los Angeles Dodgers early in his career in 2017. Then in 2018 he leaped to the Tampa Bay Rays, where he went from an analyst of baseball research and development (2018-2020) to lead analyst of baseball research and development (2020-2021) and then into a role as the director of predictive modeling (2021-2024).

In October of 2024 he was poached by the Boston Red Sox and given a role as SVP and assistant general manager, leading the analytics department. 

Smith received his Master of Science from the University of Georgia and wrote his thesis on "An Expected Outcome Framework for Evaluating Batting and Pitching Performance in Major League Baseball with Applications to the 'Juiced Ball.'"

In the Smith post on social media, Passan specifically said, "Boston assistant general manager Taylor Smith remains a top candidate to take over as head of baseball operations for the A’s." 

That is basically what we just covered in the section above, but he also said "head of baseball operations for the A's." The reason that could be important is that generally teams that have a POBO also have a general manager below them. Some people in that role, like David Forst in his time with the A's, keep the GM title despite running the show, effectively serving both roles.

If the A's were to add both a president of baseball operations and a GM, that would be a good first step in the right direction for the franchise. 

Over the past month, a list of candidates has emerged for the A's vacancy, and they range from former GMs like Mike Rizzo of the Washington Nationals, to younger guys who haven't held the role before like Groopman and Smith. 

Mike Rizzo - Also mentioned as a potential candidate for the Houston Astros opening, and he could be the right call for that franchise. 

Taylor Smith - Worked with top analytical organizations and could bring a breath of fresh air into the A's front office.

Mike Groopman - Began with the Kansas City Royals as the director of baseball analytics and then added baseball operations to that title. Spent four years with the Milwaukee Brewers on the scouting side before heading to the Red Sox in 2021. 

Billy Owens - The lone internal candidate for this role, Owens joined the A's back in 1999 as an area scout and made his way up to the role of assistant GM in 2015. 

Matt Kleine - Currently serving as the Milwaukee Brewers assistant GM, Kleine could draw on his experience with that team in particular — given Milwaukee's success in MLB's smallest market — as the A's move to Vegas and take over as baseball's smallest-market team. 

James Click - Won a World Series leading the Houston Astros in 2022 and is currently serving as the vice president of baseball strategy with the Toronto Blue Jays. Since it came out that he was in the running, not much has been said about his status for the A's role. 

Jared Banner - Another candidate named by Ken Rosenthal earlier this week, Banner is currently serving as the Chicago Cubs' assistant general manager. His experience is more in the realm of scouting, player development, and administration.