The Brewers may be staring at another front-office loss.
According to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, Milwaukee assistant general manager Matt Kleine is on a short list of candidates to become the A’s chief of baseball operations, with the Oakland-to-West Sacramento club still looking for a permanent replacement for David Forst. Forst was fired in August after 27 seasons with the organization.
The A’s are making their search while their permanent home in Las Vegas remains under construction, and Rosenthal also listed Philadelphia Phillies president of business operations Sam Fuld, Chicago Cubs assistant general manager Jared Banner and Boston Red Sox assistant general manager Taylor Smith as candidates for the job.
Kleine has been part of the Brewers’ operation for a long time. Milwaukee elevated him to assistant general manager in November 2023, but his path through the organization goes back to 2007, when he joined as an associate scout.
Before that, he played college baseball at DePauw University. Since then, he’s worked his way through a long list of roles: baseball operations and amateur scouting intern from 2009-11, baseball operations assistant from 2011-2013, coordinator of advance scouting and baseball contracts from 2013-14, manager of baseball operations from 2014-17, director of baseball operations from 2018-19 and vice president of baseball operations from 2020-23.
Milwaukee is in the middle of a postseason run right now, facing the San Diego Padres in the National League Division Series with a second straight trip to the NL Championship Series on the line.
Rosenthal also reported that the A’s interviewed St. Louis Cardinals assistant GM Rob Cerfolio, though Cerfolio is expected to remain in St. Louis, potentially as general manager under president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom.
The A’s finished 64-98 in 2026 and placed fourth in the AL West.
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Gasser has been trending in the right direction lately, while Patrick has generally been effective aside from one rough outing late in the season. Kyle Harrison is also part of the conversation, though his role is less clear after recent performance left more questions than answers. For a Brewers team trying to extend its October run, the choice could shape not just Game 4, but the direction of the entire series. [Read more 🡒]