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Elephant Rumblings: Agents offer opinions on A’s owner John Fisher, front office

MLB news roundup

By Alex Hall

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Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim v Oakland Athletics

Good morning afternoon, Athletics Nation!

The Oakland A’s offseason is actually turning out alright in the end, as the team was able to get creative enough to address it’s major needs without spending any extra money in 2021. As usual, the front office came through regardless of the constraints they had to work with.

But that doesn’t mean fans have forgotten how disappointed we are in club owner John Fisher and his longtime pattern of cheapness. As you might expect, we aren’t the only ones with gripes about him.

On Sunday, Alex Coffey of The Athletic shared the opinions of four anonymous player agents, on a wide range of topics regarding the A’s. You’ll need a subscription to read the whole thing, but suffice to say they don’t speak highly of Fisher either.

On the issue of the team’s reported revenue loss, one agent speculated, “I don’t buy that. I know they didn’t make all their profits, but I’m not so sure how they could have lost as much money as they claim, because they’re not a team that relies on the gate. ... The ownership group, the billionaire that owns the Gap, if he wants to be a small market, that’s his choice.”

Another agent, talking about Fisher: “He’s the classic dude who ends up on third base and thought he hit a triple. I don’t know why he still owns the team.” The same agent called the team’s lack of spending this winter “embarrassing.”

Of course, agents should be expected to have some bias against cheap team owners who won’t pay their clients as much, and they have a vested interest in calling that out in the media. But that doesn’t mean they’re necessarily wrong in this case.

While the agents have plenty of criticism for Fisher, they mostly praise the front office. There’s some curiosity about the secrecy behind which Billy Beane and David Forst operate when making moves, but otherwise mostly positive feedback, especially for assistant GM Dan Feinstein.

Click the link to read all the details!

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Accurate depiction

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