Moneyballtold the story of Billy Beane and how he revolutionized Major League Baseball by utilizing sabermetrics to scout players based on analytics rather than relying on “gut feelings.” This story was told through the lens of the 2002 baseball season, whereBeane was able to build a team of undervalued playersand turn them into a playoff-contending unit.
Brad Pitt starred as Billy Beane inMoneyball,a role that earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Actor and the movie a nomination for Best Picture. The film showcased howBeane’s trust in sabermetrics helped transform the A’s into a winner,despite ownership’s refusal to spend money on big-name players, andBeane remains with the team to this day.
Who Is Billy Beane?
Billy Beane Changed Major League Baseball Scouting
Billy Beane was a high school baseball phenomenonwhoattracted the interest of Major League Baseball scoutsdue to his perceived high ceiling as a player. He passed up a dual-sports scholarship to Stanford (football and baseball) to pursue a career in MLB, as the New York Mets selected him as one of their three first-round draft picks in 1980.
While he had a nine-year professional baseball career, he spent almost all of it playing only Minor League Baseball. He played in only 148 games at the Major League level during his career, with a batting average of .219. After playing for the Mets, Minnesota Twins, Detroit Tigers, and Oakland Athletics, he realized he would never hit it big as a player.
When he was demoted back to the Minor Leagues in 1990, he asked Oakland GM Sandy Alderson for a job as a scout and left his playing career behind. Three years later, he became the assistant GM, and then four years after that, he took over as the General Manager of the Athletics. That is whereMoneyballshowed him as he rebuilt the team.
Billy Beane Still Works For The Oakland A’s But In A Different Role
Billy Beane Is More Of An Advisor Now For The A’s
Billy Beane spent 18 years as the General Manager of the Oakland A’s. Even in the years that they struggled, Beane never lost the confidence of the ownership. He even refused to take a role with another team, passing up a multi-million-dollar deal from the Boston Red Sox. By the time he left his GM role,Beane had led the team to the playoffs in eight seasons.
In 2016, Beane took a promotion to executive vice president of baseball operations, and his assistant GM, David Forst, took over as the new GM. In 2022, he stepped down from that role, and he now serves as the senior advisor to A’s owner, John Fisher. Beane said he did this so former GM David Forst could take over as the team’s top executive:
“This is really as much about not just me transitioning into a new role, but also David taking on a responsibility that he’s earned as one of the top executives in the game, in my opinion. I’m still a member of the Athletics' family.
I’m very grateful to John and the relationship that we’ve forged over the time since he’s taken over ownership. I’ll continue being a good advisor for him going forward.” (viaMLB.com)
Billy Beaneis also the minority owner of the Athletics, who moved from Oakland to Sacramento and will relocate to Las Vegas in 2028.
