Had it all worked out a little bit differently, Bob Melvin still might have been in a dugout at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday night, trying to navigate his team through the wild-card game and into the ALDS in Boston.
Melvin just happened to be wearing Athletics green and yellow instead of the pinstripes he might have donned had Billy Beane let his manager talk to the Yankees last offseason.
After firing Joe Girardi, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman requested permission to speak with Melvin, who had just gotten a one-year extension through 2019 with the A’s. But Beane, Oakland’s vice president of baseball operations, turned Cashman down, making sure Melvin stayed in an A’s uniform.