The Oakland Athletics hired Dave Stewart to a front office role, the organization announced this week. Stewart, 68, won the 1989 World Series MVP with Oakland and pitched for the franchise from 1986 through 1992. The A's did not disclose his title, reporting structure, or compensation.
Stewart last worked in baseball operations as Arizona's general manager from 2015 to 2016, posting a 148-176 record before his dismissal. He has spent the intervening years in media and consulting. The A's front office currently employs roughly 40 people, down from 52 in 2022, per industry sources. Stewart reports to general manager David Forst, who has held the role since 2015 and survives on owner John Fisher's calendar despite presiding over seven consecutive losing seasons.
The hire lands during the franchise's most operationally complex stretch. The A's play 2025 through 2027 in Sacramento's Sutter Health Park, a 14,014-seat Triple-A facility, while a $1.5 billion Las Vegas stadium rises near the Strip for a projected 2028 opening. Stewart's responsibilities remain undefined, but three people familiar with the organization's needs say the role involves Sacramento market cultivation and player development infrastructure that spans three cities. The A's currently operate facilities in Mesa, Arizona; Sacramento; and a skeleton crew in Oakland's Coliseum through lease-end September 2024.
Stewart's symbolic value exceeds his operational résumé. He remains the last A's pitcher to win a World Series MVP, a 31-year gap that underscores the franchise's decline from Moneyball efficiency to 2024's 69-93 finish and baseball's lowest attendance at 10,165 per game. Fisher, who bought the team for $180 million in 2005 and now owns an asset Forbes values at $1.18 billion, has alienated Oakland's fanbase while extracting $380 million in Nevada public stadium financing. Stewart's hiring offers Fisher a nostalgia transaction that costs low six figures and buys credibility with Sacramento season-ticket prospects who remember 1989.
The A's face sponsor renewals in Q1 2025 for deals signed when Oracle Park and Chase Center didn't yet dominate the Bay Area corporate hospitality budget. Three regional brands told the Sacramento Bee they're waiting to see Sacramento attendance before committing to 2026 spend. Stewart's presence gives the sales team a Hall of Fame–adjacent closer for suite tours, but his leverage stops at the ballpark gates. The A's drew 902,000 total fans in 2024, worst in baseball and 400,000 below the next-worst team.
Stewart joins a front office managing two simultaneous builds: a Sacramento roster designed to avoid 100 losses while spending below $70 million in payroll, and a Las Vegas competitive timeline that assumes 2029 relevance when television deals reset and the stadium novelty peaks. The A's currently employ 12 pro scouts, down from 19 in 2019, and operate one full-season affiliate compared to the Dodgers' six domestic partnerships. Stewart's Arizona tenure showed limited ability to extract value from constrained budgets—the Diamondbacks ranked 28th in farm-system talent during his GM run, per Baseball America—but his role appears more ceremonial than decisional.
The franchise's institutional knowledge has hollowed. Since 2020, the A's have lost assistant GM Dan Feinstein to the Reds, director of baseball operations Michael Rankin to Atlanta's front office, and 14 other executives to rival organizations or early retirement. Stewart fills a vacancy that didn't exist until it needed filling for optics. The A's declined to make Stewart available for media interviews, a departure from standard new-hire protocol that suggests either Fisher's preference for controlled messaging or Stewart's limited operational authority.
Watch whether Stewart appears at Sacramento's season-ticket launch event in February 2025, currently scheduled at the Cesar Chavez Plaza downtown. The A's need 6,500 season-ticket commitments to justify Sutter Health Park's temporary luxury-suite installation, a $4.2 million build-out Fisher approved in October. Stewart's next visible move will signal whether this hire carries weight or whether it's another name on a website directory while Forst runs the actual roster construction from a shrinking budget and a fanbase that stopped caring somewhere around the Matt Chapman trade.
The takeaway
Stewart's hire offers nostalgia optics during a three-city transition, but the A's front office remains understaffed and rudderless heading into Sacramento.
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