Seven years ago, Cam Castro was a minor league pitching coach in the Milwaukee Brewers' system. Now, the Athletics want him to fix the one thing their rebuild has never been able to grow.
The A's are hiring Castro as their general manager,
USA TODAY's Bob Nightengale confirmed. Castro, the Brewers' vice president of player development and performance, will work under Taylor Smith, the 31-year old the A's hired as president of baseball operations last month.Castro's specialty is pitching. The A's need it badly.
They went 64-98 in 2026, their second season in a Triple-A ballpark in West Sacramento. Their pitchers gave up a franchise-record 247 home runs and walked 637 batters.
The A's have one more season there and then they move to Las Vegas in
2028.
Who is Cam Castro?
Castro never played in the majors. His resumes run through small-college dugouts.
He earned a legal studies degree from Lake Erie College, a Division II school in Painesville, Ohio, in 2012. From there he coached pitchers at Defiance College, where he also earned an MBA in sports management. He spent two summers coaching in the Northwoods League, a college summer circuit, and coached at Augustana University in South Dakota.
He also worked as a trainer at Driveline Baseball, the Seattle pitching lab best known for adding velocity.
Lake Erie brought him home as its head coach in August 2016.
What Cam Castro is credited with doing for the Milwaukee Brewers
The Brewers hired Castro in 2019 as a minor league pitching coach. He moved up to minor league pitching coordinator, then director of pitching development, then vice president in charge of player development.
Milwaukee has a reputation of fixing pitchers under Castro's leadership. The Brewers helped Kyle Harrison and Quinn Priester turn around their careers after acquiring them.
This fall, Castro was obviously part of the front office that produced Jacob Misiorowski and helped Milwaukee win its first World Series title in franchise history.
Why the A's think Castro is a good fit
The A's can hit. Nick Kurtz, Tyler Soderstrom, Jacob Wilson, Zack Gelof and Henry Bolte were all Athletics draft picks. Catcher Shea Langeliers came over from the Braves before he ever played in the majors.
But they have never been able to develop arms. The one exception is Mason Miller, who the A's traded to the San Diego Padres to continue to try and rebuild their prospect pool. MLB Trade Rumors reported that over the A's past 10 draft classes only Miller and reliever Hogan Harris have been worth even one win above replacement in the majors.
Who is Taylor Smith, Cam Castro's new boss?
Smith, 31, is the youngest head of baseball operations in the majors. The A's hired him Oct. 19. He had spent two seasons as an assistant GM with the Red Sox and seven years in the Rays' research and development department.
The search for a new president of baseball operations and GM began in August, when the A's and longtime GM David Forst agreed to part ways. Forst had been with the organization for 27 years, the last 11 as GM.
Smith and Castro now have one season to get the roster ready for Las Vegas. Manager Mark Kotsay made his wish list short.
Pitching "should be priority number one this offseason," Kotsay said after the season finale.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Athletics hire Cam Castro as GM to fix biggest flaw in their rebuild
