Billy Beane could leave Athletics, baseball behind for Fenway financial gig, per report

Trailblazing Oakland A’s executive Billy Beane could leave the organization if his RedBall Acquisition Corp., a special-purpose acquisition company, completes a successful merger with John Henry’s Fenway Sports Group, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Because Fenway Sports Group is the principal owner of the Boston Red Sox, MLB could deem the merger a conflict of interest for Beane.

The Journal specified that Beane would not take a job heading up the Red Sox front office, instead focusing on the company’s potential for acquiring additional soccer clubs beyond Liverpool, the current European Premier League champion owned by Fenway.

The A’s have not responded for comment on the report.

Beane has long been interested in European club soccer, and this could be his opportunity to increase his involvement in that world beyond his current minority ownership stakes with England’s Barnsley Football Club and the Netherlands’ AZ Alkmaar.

The A’s will be under financial duress after a season without fans in the stands, impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. Because of the financial hit, A’s owner John Fisher decided to furlough most of the team’s employees, including scouts, and cut off stipends for its minor league players. Though Fisher reversed course, his decision didn’t sit well with the front office. The team’s already cost-effective payroll could be further impacted by the pandemic.

Beane has been with the A’s since 1989, when he joined the team as a free-agent outfielder.

He became a scout in 1990 for the A’s and learned at the foot of then-general manager Sandy Alderson, who had become interested in identifying undervalued players through deeper study of analytics.

After the 1997 season, Beane succeeded Alderson as the Athletics’ GM and furthered his practice on a shoestring budget by MLB standards, popularized as “Moneyball.”

Henry courted Beane after the 2002 season, when the Red Sox owner offered Beane a $12.5 million deal to leave Oakland for Boston and become the highest paid general manager in baseball. But Beane decided to stay with the A’s. In 2015, Beane was promoted to his current position as the A’s executive vice president of baseball, making David Forst the team’s general manager under his management and the natural successor if Beane were to leave.