Oakland Athletics executive Billy Beane is expected to leave the organization in order to pursue new business opportunities outside of baseball.
The 58-year-old baseball executive was made famous by “Moneyball”, the Hollywood movie in which he was played by Brad Pitt.
Beane is currently the co-chair of RedBall Acquisition Corp, which will soon merge with Fenway Sports Group. And even though Beane is expected to partner with Red Sox owner John Henry in this new deal, he will not be taking any type of position within the Red Sox organization.
According to sources, Beane is interested in shifting his business focus to European soccer. He recently purchased a stake in Dutch club AZ Alkmaar.
After a short-lived career as a player, Beane shifted his focus to scouting. He has been a member of the Oakland Athletics front office for the past 30 years. The A’s have made it to the playoffs in each of their past three seasons, but haven’t had much success in the postseason.
Because of the movie about his life, Beane is known even outside of baseball circles as one of the people who was most responsible for ushering in the use of modern analytics when putting together a baseball team.
