A’s Owner John Fisher On Hiring 30-Something President of Baseball Operations: ‘World Is Run By 31-Year-Olds Today’
Story by Alan Snel Photos by Hugh Byrne
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — A’s owner John Fisher is giving the keys to his billion-dollar baseball team to 31-year-old Taylor Smith to oversee player acquisitions, develop players and guide manager Mark Kotsay on in-game strategy.
“The world is run by 31-year-olds today,” Fisher said after he introduced Smith as the Athletics’ president of baseball operations.
Smith comes to the A’s from the Boston Red Sox, where he worked for two years as senior vice president/assistant general manager. Before that, Smith worked seven years for the Tampa Bay Rays, a team that won the American League pennant and plays the Milwaukee Brewers in the 2026 World Series. Smith replaces David Forst, who was gone Aug. 7 after the team lost 32 of 39 games following a 38-38 start. The A’s were wrecked by a slew of injuries to their key players while the pitching struggled badly.
Smith inherits a solid core of young players like Nick Kurtz, Jacob Wilson and Tyler Soderstrom at the A’s, but he faces a challenge to improve a pitching staff that ranked as the second worst in the 30-team Major League Baseball. The Athletics pitchers gave up 5.78 runs per game — 29th out of 30 MLB teams. The A’s earned run average was 5.78.
Fisher said his first phone call about Smith was to the Tampa Bay Rays, a team that has earned a top reputation for shrewd trades and player development on one of the lower payrolls in the majors through the years.
For the first time in over 70 years, the A’s are turning to the outside to find our head of baseball operations.. Taylor is someone who stood out to us from the very beginning of our discussions. We had a very thorough search process – 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, his appreciation for what it takes to make a good player a great player and we think he is going to be able to do the kind of necessary things to make our good team a great team. – John Fisher, owner of the A’s
Fisher said it’s unclear whether he will hire a general manager to report to Smith, noting some teams have both a president of baseball operations and a GM while others just have a president of baseball operations.
Smith said his job is threefold: using analytics and scouting to acquire players; creating an environment to focus on players’ skills to develop ballplayers; and coming up with in-game strategy to capitalize on opportunities.
A’s manager Kotsay said he will sharing dinner with Smith tonight.
A native of Woodstock, Ga., Smith graduated from the University of Georgia with joint bachelor’s and master’s degrees in statistics along with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics.
LVSportsBiz.com asked an A’s representative for a one-on-one with Smith like other media was receiving after the presser. I was told he was talking to only the Athletics’ partners today.
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