Changes are coming to the A's. It's a matter of when, not if. Just ask David Forst.

Mere hours before Tyler Soderstrom, the Oakland A’s top prospect, hit his fifth home run in Triple-A on Friday night, a drive that flew over the bar and pool beyond the right-center field wall at Las Vegas Ballpark, GM David Forst joined Chris Townsend on A’s Cast to discuss the present and future of the 5-22 club.

For a high-level baseball executive, Forst was remarkably candid in his assessment of the team, describing the A’s offseason moves as a “complete strip down” rather than using softer terms, with softer connotations — like “rebuild” or “reboot” — that are generally deployed by people who run baseball operations for a major league team.

Every so often, when a GM or manager speaks, I’ll hear an answer that makes me tilt my head and go, “Wait, what did he just say?” That happened amid the following exchange between Townsend and Forst.

TOWNSEND: At the start of the year, there’s like, “If everything works out right, this is what the team could be like.” And, unfortunately, not everything did work out right. And I know for like even myself after games or the callers, we all want to be fantasy baseball, “Do this! Do that!” I know it’s not that easy, but when do you start looking at it and go, “You know, we’re gonna have to do a lot of changes.”

FORST: Yea. We’re getting close to that time. I mean, look, we are not even a month in and you don’t want to make decisions based on — particularly the guys who have track records — you don’t want to make decisions based on 25, 30 or even 35 games. But at some point you do need to make changes. And again, I talk about the guys in Triple-A, there are guys in Double-A who are performing, who are going to move up and become candidates. So, I think that’s a conversation we have every day is, “What are the options? When’s the right time?” Things like that. We’re getting Drew Rucinski back tonight. I’m hopeful that we get Paul Blackburn back sometime soon. He had a blister on his middle finger that set him back.  So, we don’t have a time frame. I think we’re going to get Ramon [Laureano] back this weekend. There’s some light at the end of the tunnel for some of the other injuries. So, those things will affect the roster — both 26- and 40-man [and] the team on the field. But we know we need to make some adjustments as we go along.

In the time that Forst offered those comments and when I typed them up, both Rucinski and Laureano rejoined the roster. The part that I’m most interested in is this:

But at some point you do need to make changes. And again, I talk about the guys in Triple-A, there are guys in Double-A who are performing, who are going to move up and become candidates. So, I think that’s a conversation we have every day is, “What are the options? When’s the right time?” Things like that.

Triple-A AND Double-A? Well then. The Triple-A guys are easy to call out. The list begins with the aforementioned Soderstrom, a catcher, first baseman and general crusher of baseballs and Zack Gelof, the organization’s No. 2 prospect. A second baseman, Gelof hit his own moon shot on Thursday night, a 409-foot home run that went over the pool, but not the bar.

Where it gets fun is trying to figure out the Double-A players who could become “candidates,” as Forst puts it. Earlier this week, I speculated about a scenario in which Lawrence Butler could make a late-season cameo.

Aside from Butler, fellow 22-year-old outfielder Denzel Clarke could potentially be one of the Double-A players Forst was alluding to. But that feels like a stretch (even more so than Butler). Clarke has played three games in Double-A at the time of writing this.

Scanning the Midland RockHounds' roster, Brett Harris and Royber Salinas are two other players who jump out. Harris is a 24-year-old third baseman who already spent more than half of last season in Double-A and is currently posting a .868 OPS in the first month of 2023. The 2021 7th-round pick is likely another strong month from getting promoted to Triple-A and then, from there, could be a hot streak from Oakland. Harris is especially worth keeping tabs on when you consider how much of a mess the left side of the infield has been for the A’s.

Salinas, a 22-year-old starter acquired in the Sean Murphy trade, just completed his first month of Double-A baseball. His numbers — a 3.44 ERA in 5 starts with 29 K’s and just 5 walks in 18.1 innings — indicate that he could make a midseason jump to Las Vegas and could, if Forst and Co. are feeling bold, even pitch his way to the big club.

Changes are coming. It’s just a matter of when, not if. One thing is certain. The roster at the end of May is sure to look much different than the current one.