By admin 
The Athletics haven’t won a series at Sutter Health Park since June 14 and have gone 12-35 since, assuring their postseason drought will extend to six seasons.
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Which is why infielder Donovan Walton spent early Monday afternoon burning sage in the West Sacramento clubhouse.
Walton joined the A’s in the middle of a nine-game losing streak after being claimed off waivers from the Los Angeles Angels last month. He used the ancient ritual to try changing the losing vibe. Which is also what his new team did last week when it parted with General Manager David Forst Aug. 7 to end his 27th season with the organization prematurely.
Walton’s sage and Forst losing his job are both signs the season has gone off the rails.
“I think it’s pretty sad,” A’s shortstop Jacob Wilson said of Forst’s departure. “He decided that he wanted to draft me coming out of college. And he wanted to lock me up here for a long time. He was one of the best dudes I think I’ve gotten to run into in this baseball world.
“He’s definitely gonna be missed. (To be) part of this organization for that long, you need to be a good person. And I think the front office decided to make changes. As players, you just got to accept it. That’s out of our control.”
The mood in the clubhouse before Monday’s game, before the team lost 10-6 to Tampa Bay, was upbeat with Walton’s aromatics burning in the background. The A’s had just taken two of three from the surging Boston Red Sox after the dust settled from Forst’s departure — which the team termed as “mutually agreed to part ways” — and were back home after a six-game road trip to host the Rays.
Saturday’s win at Fenway Park snapped the A’s nine-game losing streak, their second such streak in a month, and the team won the series with another victory on Sunday. They returned home at 47-71 with a less than a 0.1% chance at making the postseason, according to Baseball Reference.
Which puts Forst’s replacement in a tough spot. The A’s announced assistant general manager Dan Feinstein would take over the role on an interim basis and the organization would start a “comprehensive search for the next General Manager.”
“Our focus is going to be supporting Mark and the staff and the players, however we can,” Feinstein said. “I’ve been given this role and plan to pour every single thing I can into it for the remaining two months.”
The divorce came after Forst spent 27 years with the club, beginning as a scout in 2000 before becoming head of baseball operations in 2015 succeeding Billy Beane. Forst and the team agreed on a one-year deal last offseason, putting his long-term future with the team in doubt ahead of its planned move to the new ballpark in Las Vegas in 2028.
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The team came into the season with expectations to compete for the playoffs but wildly unperformed while also being hit hard with injuries. The injury list as of Monday included its top two starting pitchers Luis Severino and Jeffrey Springs; their three best hitters in All-Stars Nick Kurtz, Shea Langeliers and last year’s All-Star Brent Rooker; opening night center fielder Denzel Clarke; and one of their best relievers, Justin Sterner.
Wilson, who started the All-Star game last year and finished runner-up to Kurtz in AL Rookie of the Year, missed 42 of the team’s 118 games before starting at shortstop on Monday.
“I think as players, you can’t really reflect too much on the negative side of how you’ve been playing because if you decide to do that, it’s just going to keep the negative ball rolling,” Wilson said.
A’s manager Mark Kotsay held a team meeting to deliver the Forst news before players would find out about it on social media. Kotsay signed a three-year extension in 2025, putting him in charge of the A’s planned three-year stay in West Sacramento before their 2028 move to Las Vegas.
But it’s unclear if Kotsay will be around for the entirety of the contract. The A’s have gone 123-157 since he signed the three-year extension.
He said he hopes Forst’s departure doesn’t impact his players.
“As a player, I don’t think there’s a lot to process,” Kotsay said. “There’s guys in that locker room that know they’ve been given the opportunity to be a big leaguer because of him, which I’m sure they’re very thankful for and grateful for.
“But they also have a reality that their careers and the performance of their careers depends on how they go out and play the game. So there’s a level of accountability for all of us with David not being here that we all felt and probably will feel through the end of the season.”
To wit, the A’s and Forst gave out long-term contracts to Wilson (seven years, $70 million), Tyler Soderstrom (seven years, $86 million), Rooker (five years, $60 million), Lawrence Butler (seven years, $65.5 million) and Severino (three years, $67 million).
The plan was those players would help usher in a competitive era in Las Vegas, but the A’s have done little winning during their two losing seasons at their interim home in West Sacramento.
“I think that we have put ourselves in a tough spot, recordwise,” Wilson said. “The mindset is trying to win as many games as we can and if we don’t make the playoffs, we just go in the offseason and work on whatever we can to come back next year and be even stronger.”
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