The Oakland Athletics have named Mark Kotsay as their new manager according to TSN.. The Athletics were in need of a replacement with Bob Melvin leaving the Athletics for the San Diego Padres.
This will be the fist managerial job in Major League Baseball for Kotsay. The native of Whittier, California has been part of the Athletics coaching staff since 2015. He was initially their bench coach in 2016, and then was named their quality control coach for the 2017 season.
As a player Kotsay spent 17 seasons in Major League Baseball as an outfielder and first baseman from 1997 to 2013. He played with the Florida Marlins, San Diego Padres, Oakland Athletics, Atlanta Braves, Boston Red Sox, Chicago White Sox, Milwaukee Brewers, and San Diego Padres.
Kotsay had his finest season with the Athletics in 2004. That season he even was 14th in American League most valuable player voting. He had career highs in batting average (.314), hits (190), doubles (37), on base percentage (.370), slugging percentage (.459), and total bases (278).
In his 14-year career, Kotsay also had a career batting average of .276 with 127 home runs and 720 runs batted in. During his 7110 plate appearances and 6464 at bats, he also scored 790 runs, and had 1784 hits, 353 doubles, 48 triples, 98 stolen bases, a .332 on base percentage, 2614 total bases, 30 sacrifice bunts, and 48 sacrifice flies.
Since the 2021 Major League Baseball regular season ended in October, there have been four managerial changes, but the Athletics are the first American League team to have a managerial change. The other three managerial changes have come in the National League. As mentioned, the San Diego Padres have brought Bob Melvin on board from the Athletics to replace Jayce Tingler. The New York Mets and St. Louis Cardinals have also made offseason managerial switches. The Mets have brought on Buck Showalter to replace Luis Rojas, and the Cardinals have brought on Oliver Marmol to replace Mike Shildt.
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