New Oakland A's front office roles: Extensions for Sonny Gray and Josh Reddick?

After announcing title bumps for Billy Beane and David Forst to Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations and General Manager, respectively, the duo held a press conference at the O.co Coliseum.

The responsibilities of the two are not changing much, as David Forst seems to already have responsibilities in the same vein as other President-GM front offices do, just without the title. Says CSN California's Joe Stiglich, "They've each cultivated their own relationships with executives from other teams when it comes to trade talks, to the point where Forst knows some GMs around the game better than Beane does."

Beane/Forst promotions only a change in titles. As Beane said, "This makes public how we've been operating."

— Jane Lee (@JaneMLB) October 5, 2015

Billy Beane did hint that he hopes to become more involved in amateur scouting and the draft. Beane said, "After a while, you get separated from that part of it and like to reconnect with it in a bigger way, so I'm hoping that's the case," reports MLB.com's Jane Lee.

Forst has had numerous opportunities to interview with other clubs, but he has stuck with the A's each time in his 16 seasons in the A's front office. According to Joe Stlglich, Forst said, "Working for (owners) Lew (Wolff) and John (Fisher), working with Billy, for [A's team president] Mike [Crowley], it's what I always wanted. My family loves it here. I'm thrilled to have this happen, to know I'm gonna be here for a while."

★★★

Along with today's title bumps comes word from Billy Beane that the A's will consider Josh Reddick and Sonny Gray for contract extensions, writes John Hickey of the Bay Area News Group.

Beane says firmly that Reddick is back next year and a candidate for a contract extension.

— Susan Slusser (@susanslusser) October 5, 2015

Reddick will reach free agency after the 2016 season, and his performance at the plate this year was enough to earn him Oakland's nomination for the Hank Aaron Award, given annually to the MLB player selected as the top hitter in each league and voted on by baseball fans and media.

"Monday morning[,] manager Bob Melvin took Reddick aside, presumably to tell him of the club's intentions," Hickey writes. Reddick told the San Francisco Chronicle's Susan Slusser last week, "I love being here, I love playing here. ... I think there is a bright future for this organization and I obviously want to be a part of it. ... I hope it's the rare occasion where I stick around and get the kind of extension very few players ever get here."

Sonny Gray won't reach free agency until 2020, and salary arbitration until 2017, but Beane is repeatedly on record as saying Gray's status in Oakland is not in doubt. Contrast to last year's pronouncement by an unnamed "Athletics official":

I see two national writers mentioned possibility of a Donaldson trade. I ran that by an #Athletics official; he said "That would be stupid."

— Susan Slusser (@susanslusser) October 2, 2014

Beane's on the record for this latest denial. So we'll see.