One of the most creative forces in the A's front office is becoming one of the hottest names in major-league baseball.

Farhan Zaidi, 37, is an MIT-educated baseball analyst with a doctorate from UC Berkeley in behavioral economics, but he's moved beyond the number-crunching that was initially his specialty. And with the 2014 season approaching - FanFest is Saturday, and pitchers and catchers report next week - Zaidi got a promotion: He was named assistant general manager/baseball operations Tuesday.

"He's absolutely brilliant," Oakland general manager Billy Beane said. "He has a great qualitative mind, but also a creative mind. The ability to look at things both micro and macro is unique, and Farhan could do whatever he wants to do, not just in this game, but in any sport or any business. I'm more worried about losing him to Apple or Google than I am to another team."

Zaidi (his name is pronounced FAR-hahn ZY-dee) played a large role in Oakland's acquisition of Cuban outfielder Yoenis Céspedes. Zaidi is one of the minds behind the team's heavy, and successful, use of platoons while winning the American League West the past two seasons. Among other decisions, it was Zaidi's idea to move Brandon Moss to first base to get him into the lineup more frequently.

The A's have one of the most diverse front offices in pro sports, and Zaidi's background is especially unusual: He is Canadian and one of few Muslims in baseball, along with Shiraz Rehman, the Chicago Cubs' assistant general manager.

Powerhouse family

Susana Bates/Special to The Chronicle

Zaidi grew up in the Philippines with equally accomplished siblings Zeeshan, 39, a talented musician who works for LiveNation and has a band, the Commuters, based in New York; Jaffer, 33, who went to Georgetown's School of Foreign Service and works at Google; and sister Noor, 28, a Columbia graduate who is getting a doctorate in history at the University of Pennsylvania.

Like many in the new wave of Ivy League baseball executives, Zaidi read Michael Lewis' "Moneyball" and was impressed with the Oakland franchise's business model. While at UC Berkeley, Zaidi sent his resume to the A's, as well as to the Dodgers and Blue Jays, teams then run, respectively, by former Beane assistants Paul DePodesta and J.P. Ricciardi.

"I never heard back from any of them," Zaidi said. "I was like, 'OK, well, that's too bad.' "

He kept his eye on the major-league jobs board, and after the 2004 season ended, he spotted a dream listing: baseball operations assistant with the A's.

In mid-December, A's assistant general manager David Forst called in Zaidi for an interview, thinking he was in the Bay Area, but Zaidi was finishing up his Cal graduate studies at Harvard. When Forst learned that, he started backtracking; while he didn't say so, it was clear that travel costs would squash any interest. Zaidi, horrified he might lose the opportunity, rushed to say he was going back to the Bay Area to go "house hunting."

"I always remind David what a cheap bastard he was. I had to fly out on a fake house-hunting trip," Zaidi said, laughing.

Zaidi wowed Beane and Forst. A 2 1/2-inch binder full of projections for the 2005 A's didn't hurt, nor did Zaidi's affinity for Oasis, a British band that Beane also likes. Zaidi had been embarrassed to list "Britpop" as an interest on his resume, but it wound up helping seal the deal.

"David and I looked at each other when he left and said, 'That's the guy,' " Beane said. "It wasn't just his analytical skills, it was his incredible personality. It was important to us to find someone to fit into a very fraternal group."

Advocate for Céspedes

At first, Zaidi was the stereotypical advanced-metrics analyst, concerned primarily with players' statistics rather than other valuations, but in recent years, he has focused just as much on information from the team's scouts. He is known for memorizing reports, and when the A's were considering Céspedes before the 2012 season, Zaidi went into a meeting and recited four years' worth of information about Céspedes.

"I would say that he was the No. 1 person behind how aggressive a bid we made on Yoenis," director of player personnel Billy Owens said.

The sabermetrics crowd would be stunned to learn that Zaidi is now called the "Tools Police" in the A's draft room - not because he disdains tools, the emphasis scouts often place on physical abilities such as running, throwing and power, but because he is such a proponent of them. "Moneyball" was about looking beyond tools, but Zaidi sees their value, to the point that he has a toy siren he hits whenever he hears reports that have too many stats.

"Our scouts started to think all we wanted was numbers, so our draft emphasis was too much on performance and we weren't getting the impact prospects other clubs were," Zaidi said. "The siren was a little comic relief, half joking, to serve as a reminder not to get too focused on the numbers."

Scouts' honor

"Farhan is the most vocal supporter of scouting in the room," Owens said.

Zaidi also has become the smiling face of the Oakland front office. Beane, with his high profile, can be intimidating, while Forst is more reserved. Zaidi, though, is so friendly that even players feel comfortable talking shop with him.

"Obviously Farhan is not your prototypical baseball guy when you look at him, but that's why the A's are so good, Billy finds these guys," left-hander Brett Anderson said before being traded to the Rockies in December. "Farhan is ungodly smart, and he's also really sarcastic and witty, it's fun to be around him. You can ask him questions, have a conversation. Brandon McCarthy liked to go into the video room and ask him about obscure stats, and then I'd have to go Google whatever it was to figure out what they were talking about."

"He's engaging, he's able to look at baseball from every angle, consider every element, and he has great leadership skills," Owens said. "He should be an emerging GM candidate for sure."

One major-league executive said during the winter meetings that he'd leap to hire Zaidi if possible, but his team has approached the A's about Zaidi in the past and was rebuffed.

"He's an integral part of the A's, a hidden gem," Owens said. "The guy is the real deal - I can't emphasize that enough."