Melvin balancing winning now, rebuild in Oakland

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — A’s manager Bob Melvin, entering his seventh season at the helm in Oakland, has been tasked with the challenge of breeding success in the short term with a club that’s directing its efforts for the future.

A’s vice president of baseball operations Billy Beane, who has typically avoided any mention of a rebuild in the past, was forthcoming Tuesday night when speaking about the realities of his team’s fate; fielding a contending team won’t happen overnight, and perhaps not until a new stadium is built. Patience will be required, particularly with a promising young group the A’s want around for when that happens.

“For the first time, actually bringing guys in and sustaining them and keeping them here, that’s going to be the focus,” Melvin said Wednesday morning from the Winter Meetings. “So as soon as we can get a site down and start working towards that, now all of a sudden your strategy changes … and you’re developing guys that you hope to keep, down the road you’ll be signing some free agents that you hope to sign for multiple years, and keeping a team together more so than we have in the past. That’s important to sustaining success.”

Melvin’s job requires continued attention to the present, though, and he expects to get the most out of his young roster in 2017.

“It’s a long-term plan, but we’ve also done pretty well with some younger guys in the past,” he said. “You know, in 2012, we had I don’t know how …

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