Photo credit: nypost.com

By Jerry Feitelberg

The Oakland A’s announced that former General Manager Sandy Alderson has been hired as a Senior Advisor to Baseball Operations. Sandy first joined the A’s in 1981 as General Counsel. He stayed with the club for seventeen seasons and was instrumental in building the club that won three straight pennants, and one World Series championship. Alderson turned over the reins as GM after the 1997 season and stayed on as President of the club until the end of 1998.

Three days after the 1998 season ended, Sandy left the A’s to become the number three man at MLB. He was an Executive Vice President there from 1998 until 2005. Sandy then became President of the San Diego Padres and held that post until the end of 2009. Sandy became the GM of the New York Mets from 2011 until 2018. He left that post due to health issues.

Sandy was a mentor to Billy Beane and handed him the job as GM when he stepped down from that position after the 1997 season. Beane is now the Executive Vice President for Baseball Operations for the A’s, and David Forst has the job of GM.

Beane had this to say about Sandy rejoining the club: “His mentorship and friendship have been invaluable to me over the course of my career, and I look forward to the expertise and perspective he will add at every level of the organization. David and I couldn’t be more excited to bring him back to Oakland.”

This will be Sandy’s 18th year with the club. All of those who know him including the media, players, and fans, are happy to see him back in Oakland. We all wish him great success in his new job and, most importantly, wish him good health.