the Detroit Tigers in the American League Championship Series. After the 2002 season, the Boston Red Sox made Beane an offer of $12.5 million to become their GM, but he declined. On April 15, 2005, Beane received a contract extension to remain with the Athletics as its general manager through 2012, and new team owner Lewis Wolff awarded Beane a small portion of the team's ownership. In February 2012, the Athletics extended Beane's contract through 2019. From their 2006 playoff appearance until 2012, the Athletics did not make the playoffs or finish above .500, which triggered criticism of Beane and his approach in some quarters, especially in 2009. Beane largely dismisses criticism of his approach, indicating that his philosophy revolves around research and analysis. Many other general managers have followed Beane's strategy and now use similar approaches. Moneyball has changed how players are valued, and Beane had begun concentrating on high school players, a group he once largely ignored, in the MLB draft, considering them to be heavily undervalued. He and other like-minded GMs also changed their draft strategies to focus more on defensive skills, which became undervalued in the years immediately after the Moneyball revolution. This new emphasis on defense was displayed in the 2010 season; although the Athletics finished at .500 and again missed the playoffs, they led MLB in defensive efficiency, measured as the percentage of balls put into play by opponents that resulted in outs, and allowed the fewest runs in the AL. In the 2012 season the Athletics again made the playoffs under Beane, winning the American League West title on the last day of the regular season. The Athletics returned to the playoffs in 2013 by winning the American League West division title again, the team's first back-to-back division championships since the 2002 and 2003 seasons. In December 2009, Sports Illustrated named Beane #10 on its list of the Top 10 GMs/Executives of the Decade in all sports. On October 5, 2015, the Athletics announced that Beane had been promoted to executive vice president of baseball operations. Assistant GM David Forst assumed the job of general manager. Activities outside baseball Soccer When the Athletics ownership group agreed to purchase the reincarnation of the San Jose Earthquakes of Major League Soccer, Beane, who has expressed a passion for soccer, began developing a system for objectively analyzing soccer players. He has agreed to help the Earthquakes