The Oakland Athletics 2018 season was marred by a rash of injuries (21 players landed on the disabled list including 9 starting pitchers) but despite this, they defied the odds and won 97 games to earn an American League Wild Card berth. Sadly (for them anyway) the dream ended at Yankee Stadium, however, their young squad looks set to be a force in the AL going forward and in n recognition of this great effort and the major part he played in it, Billy Beane has been named the 2018 Executive of the Year. This is an inaugural MLB award decided by the 30 MLB clubs.
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Beane, who is Oakland’s executive vice president of Baseball Operations, has won several awards previously, the last of which was in 2013 when he was named Major League Executive of the Year by Baseball America, however this one will be particularly sweet given there were question marks over his leadership coming into the season – one in which expectations were low.
