There is nothing new about the A’s trading away star veterans and promoting prospects to the big leagues, but there is a different feeling surrounding the team’s current direction. After years of trying to compete on a limited budget, the A’s have dropped those pretenses and jumped fully into rebuild mode for the first time in the Billy Beane era.

On Friday, I sat down with general manager David Forst to get a sense of why the A’s front office thought now was the time to fully commit to a rebuild. We spoke for nearly an hour about the new direction, his thoughts on the progress of several of the A’s young players, how he handles trade rumors, his feelings about the organization staying in Oakland and much more. This is a long read, but there is plenty of meat for A’s fans to feast on.

Q: The rebuild is obviously the big focus right now. We’ve talked about rebuilds in the past and I think the A’s have gone down that road, to a certain extent, in past years – 2008 and 2012 during those offseasons come to mind. What makes this rebuild different from those years?

Forst: I think up until now, we have really straddled the line. When I say that, I mean between rebuilding and trying to compete in the major leagues. As long as I have been here and as long as Billy has been here, we’ve felt like whatever resources and dollars that we have, we are going to put into the major-league club and try to be as competitive as possible here.

We are now at a point here where we are working with a longer-term plan. That is ultimately made possible by the prospect of having a new building. I don’t think that’s necessarily a new idea. We’ve always said what could change our business model is having a new stadium that can generate revenues well beyond what we do here in the Coliseum.

Q: In looking around baseball, there have been several rebuilds – some that are in progress now and some that have been completed. Is there a rebuild that you think is similar to yours? Maybe the White Sox? Or is the A’s situation unique?

Forst: I don’t know that we are unique so much as every rebuild is. They are sort of like snowflakes: no two rebuilds look the same. You’re in a different place — whether it’s Chicago with the White Sox and the Cubs or Houston — there are different revenue streams.

Houston was in a place where they had a new building but they didn’t have a TV contract, so different variables there. You can see how they have ramped their payroll up over the past several years, from, I believe, $75 to $95 to $125 million. The Cubs were in a place where they had all of the resources they could ever need. They were just looking for the right time to use them.

So this is a situation where we need the increase in revenues and we are still waiting, frankly, on the timeline for when that is going to happen. It’s hard to really compare this to any other situation.

Q: A lot of focus has been on the guys who are breaking into the big leagues right now – the Matt Olsons, Matt Chapmans, and so forth – but is the rebuild more of a layered process where you also focus on guys who are 18, 19, 20 years old who might be breaking in at the tail-end or past the five-year window?

Forst: Yes. You don’t do this just so that there is one group that competes. It has to be an organic thing within the system. Obviously, we spent internationally last year well beyond what we have ever done and that can’t just be a one-time thing. There are restrictions now in place with the new CBA (collective bargaining agreement), but you have to spend what is allotted to you and you have to do a good job with it to keep that pipeline going.

It’s really nice to focus on the guys who are here now, and we are very encouraged by the play of those guys that you mentioned, but there does have to be another group and another group behind that.

Q: When you are looking at your big-league roster, is there a sense that there has to be a few veterans in a younger clubhouse? Or is that less important because this group of young players has worked together and won together for so many years in the minor leagues?

Forst: I think the latter part of that is important. This is a group that has come up together, particularly Chad Pinder, Ryon Healy, Olson, Bruce Maxwell, those guys have all played together. Chapman was a little behind them, but he still played with them. That is an important element.

That said, there is always room for a veteran presence, for experience. We’ve seen it somewhat with the starting pitching this year. There are going to be ups-and-downs, no matter what. None of these guys are immune to what players face. Sometimes it helps to have some of that experience around.

Q: Talking about the pitching, there was a big change when Curt Young was let go and Scott Emerson (“Emo”) was promoted to pitching coach. You also brought back Garvin Alston to be the bullpen coach. Are you leaning on their experience working with younger pitchers, or was there something else that precipitated that move?

Forst: Through no fault of Curt’s, it was really about changing the voice and changing the process there. Emo has been in the organization for a long time and Garvin had worked with some of these guys when he was here in the minor leagues and we just felt like we needed to see more progress.

Now, whether that has happened in the second half of the season remains to be seen, and we clearly have some work to do on the pitching front. It’s interesting: 10 months ago I would have told you that we feel really good about our starting pitching, but we need some position players to catch up. It’s kind of flipped over the course of the past six months.

That said, we still have a lot of talent in the starting pitching depth chart here. Chris Bassitt wasn’t healthy. Daniel Mengden wasn’t healthy. Jesse Hahn hasn’t been healthy. So we’ve had those issues on top of Kendall Graveman missing two months and Sean Manaea being up and down. The talent is there. We just need to find the right formula to get these guys on an upward trend.

Q: Is it puzzling to see guys like Daniel Gossett or even Sean Manaea, who didn’t give up a lot of home runs in the minor leagues and tracked as guys you’d expect not to allow a lot in the big leagues, then come up to the big leagues and give up a lot of homers?

Forst: First of all, this is a tough league. (Laughs.) It’s tough to pitch in the big leagues. But also, the more data that we get on guys’ stuff and the more that Statcast reveals and that we see on Trackman, you see guys’ stuff change. Once a groundball pitcher doesn’t always mean that you are going to stay with that stuff. Guys change their mechanics. They change their repertoire. They are trying to adjust to what the league is doing to them. It ultimately kind of changes their makeup a little bit.

Q: With the starting pitching injuries the past few years, do think that some of them are caused by trying to adjust to the league and making the wrong kinds of mechanical adjustments, or has that been more of a perfect storm situation?

Forst: It’s not as sort of black-and-white as that. Guys do make adjustments based on performance and whether that is mechanical or stuff-wise, I’m not certain that leads to injuries. We haven’t made that connection yet. That said, it’s an area we need to get better at, keeping these guys healthy.

You see it across the game. As there is more velocity there, the injuries pile up. Not just for us, but for a lot of teams.

Q: That issue has trickled down into the minor leagues this year and there have especially been a lot of pitching injuries this year. Is there a thought to changing the program for the minor-league pitchers, or do you think it is an issue that is going to pass?

Forst: When you talk about the minor leagues, obviously (A’s minor league pitching coordinator) Gil Patterson is in charge (of the pitching program) there. We have made changes and we’ve protected guys. Sometimes it’s the guys that you protect that end up getting hurt. It’s frustrating.

You look at a guy like Daulton Jefferies, who had injury issues at Cal, but basically didn’t throw last summer and we kept him on a low pitch-count this year and his (UCL) still gave out. So it’s frustrating when you think you are doing everything possible to protect a guy and he still gets hurt.

I trust that Gil is constantly monitoring and constantly tweaking his program. We’ve had to push him a little bit. In the case of, for instance, A.J. Puk. I looked at A.J.’s game log at one point and he hadn’t thrown 100 pitches in like a month and with his progress, I said to Gil: ‘You need to push this guy. If he’s going to be a candidate for the big-league rotation sometime next year, we need to know that he can be a major-league starter.’ I think Gil is as vigilant as anybody in trying to protect his guys.

Q: With Puk, he’s had a really strong year. He obviously didn’t start his first full season in Double-A like Sonny Gray did, but he’s spent a good chunk of the year there. Do you see Puk having a similar trajectory to Gray’s in terms of reaching the big leagues a year-and-a-half after college?

Forst: Yeah, like you said, the only difference there is that he didn’t start the season in Double-A. But what he has done in Double-A has been remarkable, particularly where he was a year ago — the kind of pitch-counts he was putting up in college and the general lack of efficiency when he was in college. The transformation into a pitcher who can get deep into games and is outstanding at missing bats has been very impressive. I would think of anybody in our system, he’s the guy who you would expect to make that jump.

Q: Was there anything that sort of led to that transformation?

Forst: Getting back to Gil, he made this adjustment with Puk in Instructional League last year. He changed his delivery into more of the side-saddle thing that you see. It really limited all of the movement.

Q: Sort of like David Price?

Forst: Exactly. And Puk’s a big guy and he’s all arms and legs coming at you. I think they watched a lot of video of Aroldis Chapman. Different kind of pitcher, but from a mechanics standpoint, I know that was one guy that Gil wanted A.J. to look at and it has worked wonders.

Q: Logan Shore missed some time with an injury, but when he has pitched, he’s pitched well. He’ll be in the Fall League this year. Do you see him being able to move quickly once he’s healthy, given how polished he is?

Forst: Yes. We always felt like Logan could be a quick mover because of his command and his understanding of pitching. He had the setback with his shoulder this year, but, like you said, he’s going to go to the Fall League and hopefully will get over 100 something innings for the year.

We’ve seen in the past guys who play well in the Fall League and that sort of vaults them. Whether that is to Double-A or Triple-A for Logan, we’ll see how he does. We’ll monitor Logan there and see where he goes moving forward.

Q: With James Kaprielian, it has been one injury after another for him since he was drafted by the New York Yankees. What was it that made you confident that once he recovers from the Tommy John surgery, you’ll be getting the pitcher you were hoping for when you acquired him in the Gray deal?

Forst: Every rehab is different. Despite the narrative out there, Tommy John surgery is not this sort of cure-all. That said, I think a lot of James’ issues that were in the medical file were taken care of by finally having the surgery. He feels great and he’s doing great.

He and Daulton will be basically rehab buddies there. Their surgeries were only something like a week a part. They’ll go through it together, which I think should help both of them.

We are very confident that this was sort of a standard Tommy John surgery. Knowing James as we do now and how hard he works and how good a kid he is, he’s going to get back to where he was.

Q: Is he throwing at this point?

Forst: No. He and Daulton will start throwing on September 15th.

Q: In talking about the Gray deal, is it difficult to make a trade like that with a market like New York when there are constant rumors being reported about what players are being discussed, setting expectations that perhaps were never realistic to begin with?

Forst: It does make it more difficult. There were a lot of things that were reported that were just not true. At one point it was reported the deal was being held up allegedly by a couple of guys who literally were never brought up in the conversation.

The relationship you have with the person on the other end of the line is important when that stuff happens. In this case, Brian Cashman and Billy go back a long way and were able to work through it, but it also makes it more difficult when you are dealing with your own ownership to set their expectations.

There’s a lot involved in trades without being affected by outside forces, but it is part of the landscape now. We understand that as closely as the game is covered and the way the news cycle is there is going to be a lot of information out there.

Q: What made this the time to trade Gray? He had a few years left under team control and his salary wasn’t to a point yet where he took up a big part of your budget. Was there a sense that the deal needed to be done before he got hurt, or was it that these (Kaprielian, Dustin Fowler and Jorge Mateo) were the players that you would have hoped for and they were finally available?

Forst: It was a little bit of all of that. Just to be totally honest, looking at the timeline of our guys, Sonny having two years beyond 2017, it wasn’t clear that was going to make sense for us to hold onto him. But we also got to the point where we could finally put together a package of players in return that were worthwhile.

We obviously feel like we got three players who we think can make an impact here soon. It’s difficult with Dustin and Kaprielian being injured right now, but we feel good about their rehabs. And with Jorge, we feel like we got an up-the-middle star potentially.

Q: In talking with the guys in Midland, they have been very impressed with Mateo’s defense at shortstop. Do you anticipate keeping him at shortstop? I know he had begun to get some time in center field before the trade.

Forst: We are going to keep him at shortstop. He’s played really well there and, at times, he’s been electric there. Like any young player, he’s also going to have lapses with some of the routine stuff. His athleticism is impressive.

I certainly like the fact that he has played some center field and could potentially move anywhere else considering how athletic he is, but I saw him play just two days at short and I was impressed.

Q: Defense has been a big issue at the big-league level for the team for a few years now. Chapman has made a huge difference already at third base, but is defense going to be a priority when evaluating players for the big-league team?

Forst: This is a story as old as “Moneyball.” (Laughs.) I’d like to be able to afford everything. I’d like to be able to put together a team that is a good defensive team and hits homers and pitches. At some point, you have to choose.

But, yes, our defense has not been up to par the past couple of seasons. Hopefully, little by little it is getting better with Chapman at third and Boog (Powell) has played well in center. Olson has picked up where Yonder (Alonso) left off at first base. It’s something that we are aware of. Similarly, Bruce (Maxwell) has made a big difference (at catcher) both receiving and throwing.

So, yeah, it’s on our radar, but, again, until we have a change here in the model, we are going to have to continue to pick and choose where we put our assets.

Q: Renato Nunez is going to be out of options next year and defense hasn’t been his forte anywhere, but there isn’t a natural fit for him defensively with Chapman at third and Olson at first and a player like Khris Davis who has a similar skillset in left field. How do you handle a player like that who is too talented to put out on waivers but isn’t a natural defensive fit for your roster?

Forst: It’s a good question. We’ll see Renato in September and hopefully get a little feel for where he fits. But right now it’s not an obvious answer. He obviously has tremendous power and he’s done well in Triple-A, but we’ve got Ryon Healy here and what Renato is doing in Triple-A, he’s doing in the big leagues.

Ryon has proved capable at first base and he’s been DH-ing. Khris obviously DHs part of the time, so I don’t have a great answer right now for where Renato fits. But like you said, he’s going to be out of options and it’s up to us to try to fit that kind of bat into our team.

Q: On the other end of the spectrum, there have been a few guys who have added significant defensive value recently by adding positions, such as Chad Pinder, Yairo Munoz and Joey Wendle. How much help does it give you to have players like that on a roster who can literally play everywhere, especially with expanded bullpens?

Forst: Versatility is huge. In Chad’s case, it really has been the reason he has stuck in the big leagues. He has swung the bat well and he’s hit some homers, but the fact that Bob (Melvin) trusts him to play a number of different spots has been critical. We’ve always felt like defensive versatility was critical to our club. When we got Ben Zobrist for a year, he’s the model for that.

Joey Wendle has moved around — somewhat out of necessity because we wanted Franklin (Barreto) to play some second base. But the days where you could be a minor leaguer and just stay at one position and feel like you were going to get to the big leagues at that one spot are probably gone. If you look around the league and infielders are playing all three spots and outfielders the same. You have to be an extraordinary offensive player to lay claim to one defensive position.

The way we look at it with just about everybody — you mentioned Wendle, Munoz and Franklin has done the same thing — we feel like if you have the defensive versatility, there are just so many more paths to the big leagues and ways to stay there.

Q: With Franklin and now Mateo and Pinder can play up the middle as well, when you are trying to decide whether to sign Marcus Semien to an extension, what kind of factors are going to go into that decision given you have these top prospects at his position at or near the big leagues?

Forst: With Marcus, it gets a little bit back to his experience, like we talked about earlier. Marcus missed a big chunk of this year and any time you come back from a hand or wrist injury, it’s going to take you awhile to get settled offensively. That said, he has performed well the past month. He’s taken a lot of pitches and he’s gotten on base. I know that Bob feels really good about him in that two-hole.

Marcus is the shortstop here until someone takes it away from him, basically. He’s earned that. Where he fits into this group long term is still to be determined. He’s done a nice job coming back from that injury.

Q: There have been a lot more average to above-average runners added to the organization over the past couple of years. Is the organization targeting athleticism more now in acquisitions and the draft?

Forst: I think it goes right along with the versatility conversation — guys that can do more things. We have certainly made it a point with Eric (Kubota, A’s scouting director) and the scouting staff of looking at guys with other tools in the draft. Particularly down low. We have not had a ton of success after the 10th round getting guys to the big leagues. You look at taking a guy with an outstanding tool or two and see what he can do.

Plus-runners have been part of that conversation. We have a manager who does like to run if he has the right personnel. We have always been OK with that if we have the right guys.

Q: The 2016 and 2017 drafts have produced some good early returns. Are you feeling comfortable with the process you have in place for the draft right now, or is it a constantly changing process?

Forst: You never feel totally comfortable with it because there are always going to be regrets and there are always going to be misses in the draft. That is the most art of anything that we do when comparing art and science.

I’m certainly happy with last year’s group, led by Puk and some other guys who have progressed, and the early returns on (2017 draft picks) Greg Deichmann and Parker Dunshee and Brian Howard and Will Toffey are good. These guys have played well. You feel good about it now, but you never feel like you’ve got it totally figured out or that you don’t have to constantly adjust. Every draft class is different.

Q: Being able to acquire Jesus Luzardo and Sheldon Neuse in the Washington deal was almost like picking up two more picks in the 2016 draft. Were those guys you had been interested in drafting last year?

Forst: We had. That’s sort of a common theme with a lot of the guys that we trade for is that we have some history with the player typically going back to the draft. I can tell you (assistant GM) Billy Owens loved Luzardo out of the draft and was a big advocate. Then he got hurt and it just wasn’t a risk that we were willing to take with a kid who had just come off of Tommy John surgery. But in a case like that, you always have somebody who is an advocate.

I actually saw Sheldon myself. I saw Oklahoma play Oklahoma State in Tulsa. I just happened to catch him and he had a good game. So he sort of stuck in the back of my mind and we had a scout who had just seen him before we started talking to Washington and really liked him. Those things also come together when the conversation happens.

Q: Neuse’s arrival in Stockton and his impact on that team, plus the leg kick and aggressive swing through the hitting zone reminded me of Josh Donaldson a bit when he arrived in 2008. Has Neuse surprised you with how well he has played since the trade?

Forst: He’s certainly performed better this summer than our expectations. We moved him up a level (from Low-A) after the trade and you assume that it is going to take any young player some time to adjust. But he performed so much better in the Cal League than he even did in the Sally League that you couldn’t have possibly imagined that.

The comparison with Josh is an interesting one. Josh was hitting around .200 in the Midwest League when we acquired him and we moved him to the Cal League and he never looked back. Obviously, he’s turned into an incredible player, so it’s probably not fair to put that on Sheldon. But, again, it’s a similar story. We liked Josh in college, missed him in the draft. Both second-round picks. With Sheldon, the impact that he made on that Ports team was incredible.

To a man, every guy in our system — coaches, instructors, (A’s Farm Director) Keith Lieppman — were so impressed with his approach and his ability to fit in with his teammates. The way he went about the game, it was an easy decision to move him up to Double-A.

Q: Speaking of players who have taken a step forward this season, Olson’s year has been almost a 180 from last season. You can see the mechanical change with the setup of his hands at the plate, but has there been something else that has allowed him to take this step forward?

Forst: The mechanics and the mental approach, in Matt’s case, are tied together. I did have a number of conversations with Keith where it was clear that Matt had gotten too mechanical. It had really gotten into his head. You can ask him, but I think he was a little bit affected by his time up here last year. Frankly, he got beat by a lot of fastballs and struggled in a way that he probably hadn’t in a long time.

Even early this year in Triple-A, he was letting the mechanics get to him and was not allowing his talent to play through. But I will say, to his credit, he handled the up-and-down (from Triple-A to the big leagues) as well as any player we’ve had here. Bob made the joke that anytime Olson saw Bob, he knew it was his time to go down again. And he never complained. A lot of players can get frustrated by that. It really paid off since we called him up here for good.

OC: Defensively, he’s had that time in right field, but do you see first base being his regular position moving forward?

Forst: I do. I love the fact that he can go out to the outfield. And Bob may ultimately use it to bring Healy in at first and Matt to the outfield in certain situations. That will be valuable to Bob, but I do love the way Matt plays first base.

OC: Looking at Chapman, he’s hit more consistently in the big leagues than I would have anticipated. The defense was always going to be there, but he’s made more contact than I expected him to given his minor-league history. Has he made adjustments to be more contact-oriented?

Forst: I think his approach mentally has changed a little bit. I don’t think he’s made mechanical changes. Matt has always struck out at every level and it’s always been off-set by the power numbers that he puts up and his defense. It’s something that you can live with. But I know that he doesn’t necessarily want to be that guy that strikes out a lot.

I would say that I didn’t have any expectations for his offense when he came here. We knew the defense was going to play and that that would carry him until he got his feet wet. You look at his track record and at every level, it took him a little while and he’s gotten off to slow starts, but even in the last three or four weeks, the adjustments he’s made are impressive. We knew whenever he did make contact, the ball was going to fly out of here.

Going back all the way to his workout out here (at the Coliseum) before the draft — you hear the sound off of the bat and you see the way the ball travels. You know that when he does make contact, he’s got a chance to hit the ball out of the park.

Q: Paul Blackburn had a pre-draft workout at the Coliseum. You weren’t able to get him in the draft but were able to acquire him later on. He’s been very effective at keeping the ball on the ground and in the park. Why do you think he’s had so much success so far in the big leagues even without the average strikeout numbers?

Forst: I think he executes his game plan as well as any young pitcher that we have had here. Staying out of the middle of the plate is really his strength, and not trying to do more than he is capable of. I have been really impressed with Paul.

I saw him in high school (Heritage High). I went out on Route 4 and drove out there to see him. At that time, it was his breaking ball that really jumped out at me. He had this incredible curveball in high school. At that point, you couldn’t have imagined how impressive the command would be. He keeps the ball down and commands the ball to both sides of the plate. Unfortunately he took the line drive off his wrist, but really an incredibly encouraging start to his career.

Q: Even if he doesn’t make another start again this season, do you feel like you can count on him to be part of the rotation at the start of next year?

Forst: Yeah, I think so. Based on what he has done this year and knowing that his wrist will heal, I absolutely see him in the rotation next year.

Q: Do you anticipate being pretty busy this offseason? Generally, you guys are never quiet during the offseason, but there aren’t a ton of pieces left that don’t fit the rebuild.

Forst: We definitely have areas that need improvement. We need to do some work in the bullpen. And not just from a performance standpoint, but the bullpen is so critical to the mental health of the team. To score eight runs early in that game against the Angels and not be able to hold the lead has a lasting effect on a young team. We’ve always known that.

I think that you never go into the offseason thinking that you are set. We recognize on the pitching side, both starting and relieving, that we need to add some pieces to make sure that we keep the mental health of this team in order.

Q: Frankie Montas was a guy who looked like he might be able to help the back end of the bullpen earlier this year, but he really struggled and now he is hurt. Do you still feel confident he will contribute at some point?

Forst: I do. I think that any time you have the stuff that Frankie has, it’s just a matter of harnessing it. He has had some ups-and-downs. We’ve moved him from the bullpen to starting, some of it was just to get his innings up because he missed so much time last year. I was hopeful that he was going to be able to come up here and start some games in September, but unfortunately, he is hurt.

That was disappointing not to get to see him, but I do believe that he has the stuff and given how hard he works at it, I think he’ll definitely make contributions up here.

Q: Will he pitch this winter?

Forst: He’d like to. We’ll have to wait and see.

Q: With the winter leagues and the situation in Venezuela, are there going to be fewer guys playing in the Venezuelan Winter League this winter?

Forst: We still expect the league to go on. If guys are interested, we’ll still support that. (Assistant GM) Dan Feinstein had an interesting conversation with a bunch of our young Venezuelan players who all said they wanted to go home for the winter. We left the option open for them to stay at our Dominican Academy if they didn’t want to go home this winter, but to a man, he said they all wanted to go home. We will monitor that.

(Venezuelan scout) Julio Franco now lives in Florida and he will keep an eye on those guys, but obviously we are concerned about the situation in Venezuela as it relates to our players.

Q: I know Dan has said how difficult it has been to even get scouts there to see players and that the organization has flown players out to have tryouts.

Forst: Major League Baseball has done a very good job of bringing Venezuelan players out to other countries in some cases, so that has been helpful.

Q: Has it been hard mentally for the players who have family over there?

Forst: I think our guys have handled it well. Like I said, they all do want to go back, and a lot of that is probably to support their families. As far as I know, our players have handled it very well.

Q: The August trade deadline ended up being pretty busy, especially with the Justin Verlander and the Justin Upton trades at the end. Obviously, those deals make two teams in your division better, but they also signal that the Detroit Tigers are rebuilding. They join you guys, the White Sox, the Padres and a few others in that rebuilding process. Does it make it harder to rebuild when there are more teams in the pool with you, so to speak, as opposed to when the Cubs or the Braves were rebuilding mostly on their own?

Forst: Yeah, that’s a good way to look at it. Everybody is sort of trying to accomplish the same thing. At the same time, as I mentioned earlier, the restrictions on amateur talent are harder now than they were when those other teams were going through it. There are a couple of layers to that. But ultimately, when you get to the trade deadline and there are five rebuilding teams who are looking to sell, it can flood the market.

Q: Is it weird to think of Verlander in your division after all of the history between him and your club?

Forst: It’s not ideal. (Laughs.)

I actually put my phone down around 9 o’clock (Thursday) night and assumed that the trade didn’t happen. Just before I went to bed I saw some tweets, so that was disappointing. But it’s just another challenge for us. We’ve seen a lot of Verlander, unfortunately.

Q: Do you feel optimistic about this new direction even knowing that there might be a few years of bad records?

Forst: I feel really good about a lot of progress that we have made this summer with a lot of the players who are here. I remain optimistic about the starting pitching that has struggled. I think that Kendall and Sean both have the ability to be top-of-the-rotation guys. They need to stay healthy and need to get through to the end of the season to prove it.

But I do like a lot of the pieces and, along with that is the direction of the organization. (A’s President) Dave Kaval has told everybody we will announce a site this year and a timeline along with that and that sort of goes hand-in-hand with what we are doing on the baseball side.

Q: From a personal perspective for you and the other people that work for the team, is there a sense of relief that you know that the team is going to stay here after so many years of uncertainty?

Forst: Yeah, it’s nice to think about. I’ve been here 18 years and the first seven or eight I put off buying a house because we were thinking we might be in San Jose or Fremont or wherever. It’s comforting to think about staying in Oakland, absolutely. There is so much history here and there is a very loyal group of fans here who have wanted this for a long time. I know that they have shown their appreciation for that.

We have a long way to go until the building is a reality, but we are certainly closer now than we have been at any point in the past two decades.

(Top photo by Michael Zagaris/Oakland Athletics/Getty Images)