Auckland, California – The team announced Tuesday that Mark Kotse will replace Bob Melvin as Auckland’s athletics manager.
Kotse will be promoted as his third base coach and will take control of the team that has played as an outfielder in four of his 17 seasons in the Majors. The contract is for three years and has an option for 2025.
Melvin left Oakland in late October to manage San Diego Patres. Kotse, 46, was recently the athlete’s third base coach, previously a bench coach under Melvin, who replaced Bob Geron in mid-2011.
The Athletes did not advance to the playoffs after traveling straight to the post three times this season.
Auckland beat AL West in the epidemic-reduced 60-game season in 2020, advancing for several consecutive years as a wild card team. In the playoffs, athletics overcame the White Sox in the wild-card round and ended the nine-game losing-winning season – a major league record in the 1973 World Series – before losing four games in the United States. League Division Series against the Houston Astros.
The MLB network was the first network to report Gotze’s hiring on Monday.