Commentary

A's GM isn't interested in looking back

Billy Beane knows the Yoenis Cespedes question is coming, because it's always looming when you talk about the Oakland A's these days.

This is seven months after the A's general manager dealt Cespedes for pending free agent ace Jon Lester, and five months after the A's lost the American League wild-card game to Kansas City with Lester on the mound.

This is spring training 2015, with a ton of new faces, not July 2014, when the A's had the best record in baseball and Cespedes in the middle of the lineup.

Yet to explain what they are now, Beane knows he has to go back to July 31. Actually, Beane adds, the A's 2014 season had been eroding for a while before then.

Then Beane moved Cespedes for Lester, and, yes, he'd do it again.

"We don't really know how the story would've turned out had we not done anything," Beane said. "But we did get to the spot where we wanted to be, which was having Jon Lester on the hill in a playoff game "

"It does make for great conversation. I'm aware of that. I'm OK with that. Hopefully when it's all said and done, that's more a sign of leadership than just going with public opinion. We've got a discipline with how we do things. We're not going to waver or apologize for it. It's served us well over the years."

Beane's point: The A's don't get many chances at going for it all, and you can't be afraid to roll the dice when it's front of you. If you lose, you just have to deal with it and keep moving.

I understood when Beane went for it by picking up Lester and Jeff Samardzija before that.

I understand the criticism he received when it didn't work, and then when he followed it up by trading away Josh Donaldson, Brandon Moss, Derek Norris and Samardzija for younger players in the offseason as they headed toward larger salaries.

But I don't think Beane can or should do it any other way. I also don't think, under the financial constraints placed on him by ownership and the team's bad stadium situation, the A's would be relevant without Beane.

Against the odds, he puts together A's teams that matter. When they miss, the failure matters, too.

Oh, in the middle of the winter overhaul, Beane also acquired pending free agent Ben Zobrist and signed Billy Butler for three years, $30 million.

What's going on here?

It's the A's complicated three-track plan: Stay relevant now, keep the payroll low, and make sure the team doesn't hit rock bottom the way Houston and Colorado have hit and lingered for long periods.

"Smaller-market teams, when you hit bottom, you hit with a thud," Beane said. "You might stick there for five or seven years, and that's just not something that I want to do."

And in five or six years, where will Beane be? I think he is committed to the A's for a while, but he lightly brought up his age several times during conversation and added some tinges of nostalgia for times past.

Of course, Beane is only 52. He's 10 years younger than Bill Belichick and 15 years younger than Sandy Alderson, one of Beane's early mentors who is running the New York Mets.

But Beane cheerily notes that equipment manager Steve Vucinich keeps teasing the GM about his gray hair, and Beane says he has stopped thinking about the A's stadium efforts because it's too far out into the future for an old guy like him.

Beane wants no part of a total rebuild, which is why the A's moves get so frantic and complicated.

"Quite frankly, at my age, this is my 18th year [as general manager]," Beane said. "I'm not sure I want to go out there and say, 'Hey, it's OK, let's lose for a few years.' That's not how I'm built or my assistants or my front office."

Sports on 03/02/2015

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