The A\u2019s are bringing longtime manager Bob Melvin back to the organization, albeit in a new role. The team announced Thursday that Melvin is returning as a special assistant in the baseball operations department. Details regarding these types of roles are typically vague but often include working with young players in camp and serving as an in-season resource for both the front office and coaching staff.<\/p>\n
Melvin, 64, managed the Athletics from 2011-21, leading the then-Oakland club to the postseason on six occasions. Despite perennially working with one of the lowest payrolls in the league \u2014 oftentimes\u00a0the lowest \u2014 Melvin led the A\u2019s to an 853-764 record during his 11 seasons at the helm (.528 winning percentage). He was voted the American League Manager of the Year in both 2012 and 2018, and he also won NL Manager of the Year honors with Arizona back in 2007.<\/p>\n
The 2026 season will be the first year since 2010 \u2014 and just the second year since 2003 \u2014 that Melvin has not been a big league manager. Despite Melvin still being under contract in Oakland, the A\u2019s allowed him to interview with the Padres and take the managing job in San Diego following the 2021 season. That was a largely financial decision by the A\u2019s. Melvin was reportedly earning around $4MM per season, and the A\u2019s were aggressively cutting payroll as they both rebuilt the farm system and prepped for a potential relocation.<\/p>\n
Melvin spent two years in San Diego, taking the Padres to the NLCS in 2022 before missing the playoffs entirely in 2023. Melvin and Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller reportedly clashed at various points, however, and the tension between the two grew to the point that Melvin was granted permission to interview with the division-rival Giants despite being under contract through 2024. The Giants hired Melvin, while the Padres replaced him with former Cardinals skipper Mike Shildt.<\/p>\n
As was the case in San Diego, Melvin stayed two years but departed while still under contract for an additional season. Farhan Zaidi was San Francisco\u2019s president of baseball operations when Melvin was hired, but as is often the case, a new front office regime eventually gave way to new dugout leadership.<\/p>\n
Giants ownership fired Zaidi following the 2024 campaign and installed franchise icon (and board member) Buster Posey as the new baseball operations leader. Posey exercised a 2026 club option on Melvin<\/a> back in July, but less than three months later Posey announced that Melvin had been fired<\/a>. The Giants went outside the box and hired University of Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello to replace Melvin.<\/p>\n It\u2019s been a tumultuous few years for Melvin, but he\u2019ll now return to the organization that provided him stability for more than a decade. He\u2019ll be an experienced voice with plenty of perspective for general manager David Forst to consult and can also offer various insights to the Athletics\u2019 young core and a coaching staff that\u2019s now run by fifth-year skipper Mark Kotsay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The A\u2019s are bringing longtime manager Bob Melvin back to the organization, albeit in a new role. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":581795,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2290],"tags":[5,1865],"class_list":{"0":"post-581794","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baseball","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-bob-melvin"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116099569851486592","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/581795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}