The San Francisco Giants made a lot of waves a week ago when they brought in Buster Posey to serve as the new President of Baseball Operations, ousting Farhan Zaidi from the role, and also moving GM Pete Putila to another role, leaving the Giants without a GM.
One name that has been floated around for the past week has been A’s assistant GM Billy Owens. On Friday during the end-of-season press conference, A’s GM David Forst was asked if the Giants had sought out permission to speak with Owens. At that point they hadn’t.
Over the weekend, it appears as though that has changed with Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reporting that San Francisco has indeed asked for permission at this time. It does not say whether the A’s granted permission or not, though the organization typically grants those requests. Mark Kotsay, a manager they think very highly of, was allowed to interview for the New York Mets managerial vacancy just last off-season.
When asked how Forst thought Owens would do in the main chair, the A’s GM said, “I think the world of Billy Owens and what he brings to this organization. I’m privileged to have had him here for as long as we have.”
Owens has been with the A’s organization for 26 years, and has held numerous roles, from minor league hitting instructor to area scout, to scouting coordinator, and eventually assistant GM, a post he’s held since 2015.
For San Francisco, their search will likely be long and exhaustive, taking weeks if not months. This is also a pretty critical offseason for the club to finally solidify themselves as postseason contenders, so it will be interesting to see how they go about attacking free agency without a GM, or if they will try and get their search wrapped up by the time the World Series ends so that they’ll have a full front office staff ready to hit the ground running.
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