LAS VEGAS — New leadership has taken the reigns of the Athletics, moves by the organization that have been unprecedented in nature over the past four decades.

Three months after the A’s parted ways with longtime general manager David Forst, the team announced the hiring of Taylor Smith, 31, as president of baseball operations. He is the youngest head of baseball operations in all of baseball.

The hiring marked the first time since Sandy Alderson was brought on board in 1983 that the team hired a head of baseball operations from outside of the organization. Smith spent the previous two years as assistant general manager of the Boston Red Sox after spending seven seasons in the Tampa Bay Rays front office.

The restructuring of the A’s front office continued Nov. 4 when Cam Castro was announced as the team’s general manager. Castro was just days removed from celebrating a World Series championship with the Milwaukee Brewers, where he spent the past eight seasons and most recently served as senior vice president of player development and performance.

Smith and Castro each had introductory press conferences at the A’s Ballpark Experience Center at UnCommons in Las Vegas.

“Taylor is someone who stood out to us from the very beginning of our discussions,” A’s owner John Fisher said at Smith’s presser Oct. 21. “We had a very thorough search process. We talked to talented people from lots of different teams all across the country, and Taylor really stood out for his brilliance, his understanding of the game and his appreciation of what it takes to make a good player a great player. We think he is going to be able to do the kind of necessary things to make our good team into a great team.”

The Athletics were 64-98 this year in its second season playing at Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento, a Triple-A venue. At the time of Forst’s departure on Aug. 7, the A’s sported a 45-70 record. Forst, 50, began his front-office career as a scout with the A’s in 2000. He was named assistant general manager to Billy Beane in 2004 and was promoted to general manager ahead of the 2016 campaign.

Much of the Athletics’ current major league core have been drafted by Forst and his front office. In 2020, Forst selected Tyler Soderstrom with the 26th overall pick out of Turlock High School. Other draft picks include Butler, Jacob Wilson, Nick Kurtz and Henry Bolte. Forst also made key trades that brought sluggers Brent Rooker and Shea Langeliers into the organization. At the 2024 trade deadline, Forst acquired Pitman High School graduate Kade Morris from the New York Mets in exchange for former All-Star Paul Blackburn.

"It's really exciting,” Smith said of the team’s young core. “The position players get a lot of the attention. Kurtz is obviously a stud. Soderstrom, Langeliers, it's a really exciting group. I also think the pitching is really exciting.

“The pitching is really exciting as well. Jacob Lopez was awesome in the second half. (Jack) Perkins and (Gage) Jump seem like they're on the precipice of getting to that next level. (Luis) Severino provides that veteran leadership there, and JT Ginn is coming off the best year of his career. I think there's a lot to build on there.”

The A’s placed fourteen pitchers between the big leagues and its Triple-A affiliate on the injured list last season.

"I think the pitching was a little unlucky last year... I think it's a staff that will progress this year. In general, I think acquiring pitching is still something where you can be very opportunistic across the league."

With the Brewers, Castro also held the roles of minor league pitching coordinator and director of pitching development. Castro graduated from Lake Erie College with a bachelor’s degree in legal studies and from Defiance College with a master’s degree in sports management and worked as a trainer at Driveline Baseball.

Castro similarly raved about the talent currently in the organization while sharing there will be more use of analytics when it comes to player development and decision making.

“Real talent,” Castro said of the MLB roster and farm system. “I’m certainly getting up to speed on all that. … I’m working hard with Taylor and the rest of the baseball ops group to understand that and continue to dive in. But there’s real talent. Frankly, that was a part of the decision as well and made this even easier.

“In terms of player development and in terms of performance, we will work tirelessly here to develop players who have the physical skills necessary to be successful at the next level, but also have the baseball IQ and the understanding of the game it’ll take to really contribute to and create major league wins once they get there. Our goal is to do both those things better than the rest of the industry, and to make sure that the great work done here reaches the field and our players to create major league wins regularly for this franchise.”

With Soderstrom, Kurtz, Wilson, Rooker and Severino among those that ended the 2026 campaign on the injured list, and with infielder Jeff McNeil, catcher Jonah Heim and pitchers Jeffrey Springs and Mark Leiter Jr. becoming free agents, Smith and Castro have much work to be done ahead of a possible lockout on Dec.1.

After the annual GM Meetings this week at the Aria Resort and Casino, just a mile north of where the team is building a new ballpark on the Las Vegas Strip that is expected to be completed in time for the 2028 season, the A’s remain having made just one offseason move, acquiring utilityman Nate Eaton from the Boston Red Sox in exchange for minor league right-handed pitcher Jareth Rayo.

“Our goal is to go out and build a team that you are going to be proud of,” Smith said. “We want to build a team that can compete for championships and keep competing for championships. And right now we have this really exciting young core, so I’m excited to get to build on that. I'm looking forward to getting going.”