A 31-year-old young data analyst has been named president of a Major League Baseball (MLB) club.

The Athletics announced today (October 20) that former Boston assistant general manager Taylor Smith has been appointed as the new President of Baseball Operations.

The newly appointed President Smith broke the record for the youngest president ever appointed in MLB history (age 36), previously held by Paul Toboni of the Washington Nationals.

New President Smith is a non-player background figure who majored in statistics at the University of Georgia in the United States.

He entered the baseball world as an intern for the Los Angeles Dodgers, and from 2018, he proved his capabilities while handling player value evaluation and data analysis tasks for the Tampa Bay Rays.

Based on this, he rose to become the assistant general manager of the Boston Red Sox in 2024, and in just two years, he secured the position of president overseeing the baseball operations of the Athletics.

New President Smith stated, "The Athletics are a club that pursued innovation during the Moneyball era," adding, "I will strive to inherit that legacy and build a strong team."

Known for pursuing low cost and high efficiency, the Athletics club is going through a transitional period ahead of its relocation.

After finishing the 2024 season, the team left its long-time home of Oakland in northern California, dropped Oakland from its team name, and currently has its temporary nest in Sacramento, California.

Starting from the 2028 season, the team plans to play its home games at a newly built stadium being constructed in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The Athletics are pursuing many changes ahead of the Las Vegas era.

Last August, the team parted ways with long-standing general manager David Forst, who had served in the position for over a decade since 2015.

Former General Manager Forst is a figure who contributed to the team's heyday in the 2000s by utilizing sabermetrics, a statistical analysis technique, alongside former General Manager Billy Beane, who is well known through the movie "Moneyball."

Recently, it also drew attention as it was reported that "Korean Express" Park Chan-ho formed a consortium to invest 70 million dollars in the Athletics club and secure a 2 to 3 percent stake.

This season, the Athletics club recorded 64 wins and 98 losses with a winning percentage of 0.395, finishing fourth in the American League West.
 
(Photo: Capture of Athletics club social media, Yonhap News)