The Blue Jays could lose James Click, one of their top front-office executives, to the Athletics.
Click has been Toronto's vice president of baseball strategy since 2023, working underneath GM Ross Atkins.
According to USA Today's Bob Nightengale, Click has emerged as a serious candidate for the Athletics' vacant GM opening.
"Former Houston Astros GM James Click, vice president of baseball strategy with the Toronto Blue Jays since 2023, has emerged as a serious candidate for the Athletics GM opening," Nightengale wrote.
The Athletics parted ways with former GM David Forst earlier this season after a disappointing year.
Forst spent 27 years with the organization, including 11 as GM, before getting let go ahead of the team's planned move to Las Vegas.
That opening now puts Click in real position to land his second GM job in the majors.
Why Click's résumé makes him a strong fit anywhere
Click's path started at Yale in 2000, followed by a stint writing for Baseball Prospectus before the Rays hired him as an intern in 2005.
He climbed Tampa Bay's front office quickly, becoming vice president of baseball operations by 2017.
Houston hired him as GM in 2020, and he helped deliver a World Series title in 2022.
He left the Astros after owner Jim Crane offered him only a one-year contract, a lowball that pushed him to Toronto instead.
Landing in the Blue Jays' front office gave him a strong second act, even without the GM title attached this time.
If the Athletics do hire him, Toronto loses a genuinely valuable piece of its baseball operations department during a critical stretch of the season.
But for a franchise that watched Crane shortchange him once already, most in the organization would understand him taking a real shot at running his own club again.
Whether Click actually lands the job, or Oakland's search turns elsewhere, should become clearer as the offseason GM cycle picks up.
Would James Click be a good hire as the Athletics' next general manager?
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