After beginning the season with the lowest payroll in baseball and finishing the year with 97 wins and a wild-card berth, the Oakland Athletics are prioritizing keeping key members of their 2018 squad.
Signing manager Bob Melvin and two of the team's most productive hitters, Khris Davis and Jed Lowrie, is important to executive vice president Billy Beane.
"Bob's one of the best in the game and he's perfect for us," Beane told reporters Friday, according to The Associated Press. "The idea is that he's here for a long time and the rest of his career. Our feeling is that Bob's the right guy for this club and should be going forward. (That's) another question that we hope to have answered in the offseason."
The Athletics' 97 victories in 2018 were a 22-win improvement from the season prior.
Davis, who is scheduled to become a free agent after the 2019 season, has already been involved in conversations with Oakland's front office about a long-term deal after a 48-homer campaign. The 30-year-old has hit 42-plus home runs in three consecutive seasons, all with the A's.
"We've had some preliminary conversations about keeping him around longer (than 2019)," Beane said. "That'll be part of the conversations that David, myself, and Bob and the rest of the staff have."
The 34-year-old Lowrie was an All-Star in 2018 for the first time in his career after hitting 23 home runs with 99 RBIs. Franklin Barreto is on the rise, but the A's plan to speak with Lowrie, as well as veteran catcher Jonathan Lucroy about sticking around.
"Jed and (Lucroy) were huge for what we did," general manager David Forst said. "Obviously, both of those guys will be part of our conversations over the next month."
