Athletics GM bullish on playing in same city as Aviators

Oakland Athletics general manager David Forst speaks during a media schedule throughout the Big league Baseball general managers annual conferences on Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2019, in Scottsdale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Matt York).
If the Oakland Sports' plan goes as they hope and a $1.5 billion, 30,000-seat ballpark is developed on the northwest corner of Tropicana Avenue and Dean Martin Road, they would be located 11 miles from their Triple-A affiliate, the Aviators, and their house, Las Vegas Ballpark.

A's president Dave Kaval stated recently the franchise prepares to keep the Aviators in Las Vegas need to the Athletics relocate to Southern Nevada.

Although it's not common in the MLB, outside of the Atlanta Braves, Houston Astros and Minnesota Twins, A's basic supervisor David Forst stated having a club's Triple-A and major league teams in the very same market makes a lot of sense.

" It would be terrific from a baseball operations perspective," Forst stated. "It has a great deal of advantages, obviously in regards to getting players backward and forward. It makes it simple for our front office to go see the Triple-A group and evaluate on a constant basis.".

Such a plan would allow the big league personnel to check out and work with Triple-A gamers more frequently, which hasn't been possible during MLB seasons in Oakland, Forst stated.

Being so close also would help the major league and minor league staffs have a better working relationship, similar to what the A's have with their Low-A Stockton Ports.

" We have Stockton, which is about a 90-minute drive, and even being that close it helps with minors trainers having the ability to go to both places on the exact same trip to produce that synergy between the big league personnel and player advancement," Forst stated.

" There are a lot of things that you could achieve because circumstance that you otherwise would not have the ability to do.".

There is also the possibility that the A's and Aviators share Las Vegas Ballpark, with the MLB club's lease running out at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum at the conclusion of the 2024 season. Kaval kept in mind the A's have the option to dip into Las Vegas Ballpark for the 2025 and 2026 MLB seasons, with their potential MLB stadium prepared to be ready for the 2027 season.

A temporary sharing of Las Vegas Ballpark by the two groups is something that MLB commissioner Rob Manfred believes would work.

" I believe scheduling-wise, it might be done," Manfred stated Monday throughout a meeting with members of The Associated Press Sports Editors.

If that were to occur, Aviators president Don Logan said recently he had staff dealing with getting an estimate to transform the natural lawn field at Las Vegas Ballpark to synthetic grass. With a combined 182 home games possible in between the A's and Aviators, natural yard would not hold up for a whole season, Logan noted.

With improvements in turf technology, Forst isn't worried about momentarily using artificial turf in an open-air stadium in the summertime heat in Las Vegas.

" I do believe we've come a long method from AstroTurf," Forst stated. "There's a lot of places where the innovation works out well. There's college ballparks now in more places that have grass. That doesn't actually issue me. We're not talking 30 years earlier when we saw locations that were 130 degrees on the turf. The technology is beyond that now.".

Contact Mick Akers at makers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on Twitter.