Elephant Rumblings: Dave Stewart brought on board for Special Assistant role

Adding a franchise great to the front office

Welcome to Thursday, A’s fans!

The Athletics are in agreement with a former major franchise star to join the organization. That player is none other that the great Dave Stewart:

The fact that the team is announcing this themselves means this move is official. Stewart’s official title is Special Assistant to Player Development so we can expect Stew to take a particular interest in developing the young arms the Athletics have in their system coming up. We haven’t really heard much about his exact role but it seems fairly obvious he’s going to have a big say with the all of the pitchers.

This also isn’t the first time he’s been in the Athletics’ front office, having worked for as an assistant for former general manager Sandy Alderson way back in 1996. From there he’s spent time in the front offices of the Padres, Blue Jays, and Diamondbacks before landing the general manager position for the Arizona Diamondbacks. That tenure leading the NL West foe didn’t go great as his team went 148-178 in two seasons at the helm for Arizona before he was let go. Still, Stewart brings tons of off-the-field experience as well as his vast on-field knowledge.

You can’t do much better than Dave Stewart when picking a guy to work on development with young pitchers. The A’s Hall of Fame right-hander and Oakland native has won three World Series titles, including the 1989 Athletics’ championship, their last one in team history. He was known as a bulldog on the mound, having plenty of postseason experience including those three rings. He also was an All-Star for the Athletics that season as well as the World Series MVP after pitching twice in four games to defeat the Giants and claim the team’s fourth ring. Add on top of that four-straight top-4 Cy Young finishes and it’s easy to see why he’s had his number 34 retired by the team.

This is what Stewart had to say about rejoining the A’s front office:

“This all kind of works out perfectly,” Stewart said in a phone interview. “I’ve got nothing but time. Regardless of all the craziness that’s happened and the team leaving Oakland, I would not be telling the truth if I said I do not love the A’s. I love the A’s. I love baseball. It just seems like a good match at a good time.”

He’ll be reporting to the Athletics’ Ed Sprague, who is the A’s director of player development and a longtime friend of Sprague’s. They played together on Toronto during the ‘93 and ‘94 seasons. He continued on during that phone call expressing how excited he is to get to help the young A’s players learn from one of the best in the team’s history:

“I want to be able to influence players that are developing and learning to play the game and eventually become big leaguers,” Stewart said. “That’s what makes your organization a great organization: influencing players coming in and teaching them to play the game right. I think that’s where my value is.”

If “Smoke” Stewart can impress some of that vast pitching knowledge on young arms like JP Sears, Mitch Spence, and pretty much every pitcher on the team, then he’ll be a fantastic addition to an A’s club he’s familiar and comfortable with. And he won’t have to wait long to get started since pitchers and catchers report in just 20 days. Sign me up for this addition to the front office! Welcome back Stew!

A’s Coverage:

• “High Upside” Making Youth Movement Exciting
• Athletics’ Community Prospect List: Kurtz runs away with #2 honors
• A’s hire franchise great Dave Stewart
• A’s spring invitees that could push for a roster spot
• Nick Kurtz earns spring invite from Athletics

MLB News & Interest:

• When it came to signing Roki, the Dodgers understoof the assignment
• Guardians sign former closer Paul Sewald to 1-year deal
• Cubs sign Jon Berti to 1-year deal
• Angels sign former All-Star Tim Anderson to minors deal
• Blue Jays sign former Athletics Christian Bethancourt, Richardy Lovelady to minors deals
• Ex-Phillies GM Ruben Amaro to launch hitting competition
• Dodgers’ reliever Kopech dealing with forearm injury; has begun throwing program
• Today in Baseball History

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