OAKLAND >> The Oakland A’s are on pace to lose 132 games — a mark not seen in Major League Baseball since the 19th century.

Among big league teams, the A’s, going into Saturday, had the worst ERA, the worst batting average, and one of the worst defenses by fielding percentage. Oh, and the A’s appear to be nearing relocation, leaving the city and the obsolete stadium they’ve called home for the past 55 years.

As the general manager of the team with the lowest team payroll in MLB, David Forst might have had modest expectations for his club in 2023. But one-third of the way through a historically bad year, Forst remains at a bit of a loss to explain how it’s all gone off the rails in what is shaping up to be the most dreadful season in the franchise’s 123-year history.

“It’s hard to describe how things have gone,” Forst said Saturday at the Coliseum before the A’s played the Houston Astros. “This is not what anybody imagined. It’s frankly hard to explain. It’s a little bit of a perfect storm of a lot of inexperience and young players, combined with a lot of veteran players not sort of playing to their expected level.

“Throw in a bunch of injuries and you sort of get where we are right now.”

Forst’s team lost again on Saturday to extend its season-long losing streak to 10 games and drop its record to 10-44. It is on pace to have the worst record for any big league team since 1899, when the Cleveland Spiders went 20-134.

The A’s entered Saturday with a team ERA of 6.83, well behind the Kansas City Royals’ mark of 5.29, the 29th-worst in MLB. Their team batting average is .221, and other offensive stats rank near the bottom of all big league teams.

Their run differential after Saturday is a staggering minus-190.

Forst is in his first full season as the leader of A’s baseball operations after Billy Beane moved into a senior advisor role to owner John Fisher last November. Asked to evaluate his own performance thus far, Forst said, “We’re 10-43. We have a lot of work to do.”

Some takeaways from Forst’s meeting with reporters Saturday.

DON’T EXPECT BIG MOVES JUST YET >> Forst said he’s not yet considering moving out some veterans to make room for younger players.

Last season, the A’s traded pitchers Frankie Montas and Lou Trivino and catchers Christian Bethancourt and Austin Allen prior to the deadline, and veterans Stephen Piscotty and Jed Lowrie were later released. Players set to become free agents in the offseason include Trevor May, Tony Kemp, Shintaro Fujinami, and Jesús Aguilar, and it seems unlikely that those players would be kept beyond the Aug. 1 trade deadline if there’s any demand for their services.

But it appears nobody is getting moved right away.

“We’re so sort of focused right now on day to day, trying to try to win games,” Forst said. “I have not gotten to the point where we’re thinking about what comes at the deadline.”

A’S NEED MORE FROM VETS >> The A’s presently have a total payroll of $59.6 million, per Spotrac, the lowest in MLB by roughly $6 million. They did spend money on May (one year, $7 million), Aledmys Díaz (two years, $14.5 million), Jace Peterson (two years, $9.5 million), Fujinami (one year, $3.25 million), and Aguilar (one year, $3 million).

While May has missed time to deal with anxiety issues, the A’s other signings haven’t provided enough bang for Oakland’s buck. Forst wonders if those players have been asked to do too much considering what their roles were earlier in their careers.

“And that’s not their fault. That’s the roster that we put together,” Forst said. “When you have young players, any veteran guy is going to be asked to take on a role that maybe he hasn’t played on another team where you either wasn’t an everyday guy or wasn’t expected to lead things like that.

“These guys ... have track records. I get that we’re two months in, but I still think it’s realistic to expect them to perform better. We need them to.”

COACHING STAFF APPEARS SAFE FOR NOW >> Forst praised the way A’s manager Mark Kotsay had tried to find positives through the team’s first 53 games. Asked to evaluate the rest of the coaching staff in a season of strife, Forst said, “Those guys get judged on how much work they put in. How much communication they have with the players and neither Mark nor I can find fault in any of those guys right now.

“As long as I’ve been here, we’ve always said it’s hard to hold those guys accountable for what happens between the lines. They can only do so much. The players have to go out and perform.”

So the staff is safe for the rest of the season?

“Absolutely nothing has been discussed,” Forst said.

PLAY THE KIDS? >> If A’s history is any indication, prospects in the system will get a shot at the big league level at some point. Just not now.

Some of the A’s top prospects at Double-A or Triple-A include catcher Tyler Soderstrom, infielders Zack Gelof, Lawrence Butler, Brett Harris, and Darell Hernaiz, and outfielder Denzel Clarke.

The A’s could use an injection of youthful energy and enthusiasm, but not at the expense of those players’ long-term development.

“I think you should expect to see them when they’re ready,” Forst said. “I don’t want to get into a situation where we’re rushing guys’ development because of what’s happening here. The idea is to bring those guys up when they’ve performed to the point where they’re clearly ready to come here and stay.”

THE VEGAS SITUATION >> On Friday, not only did the A’s release artist renderings of their proposed new Las Vegas ballpark, but a funding bill for the stadium was introduced at the Nevada legislature.

While moves made in recent months by Fisher and team president Dave Kaval have made them deeply unpopular among local A’s fans, and attendance at some home games near record lows, Forst said he’s trying to keep those in baseball operations focused on their jobs.

“(Kaval) has been working for years and years and years on (a long-term home for the team) and he continues to work on it, but it’s not something that we focus on day to day,” Forst said. “So we work with (Kotsay), he works with the coaches and they work with the players on focusing on what we can control and what happens on the field.

“That stuff is obviously ongoing. We all see it. We all hear it. There are times when I worry about the players having to deal with the distraction. They don’t need that, they have enough to focus on. They have to worry about getting their stuff done on the field. But for the rest of us, it’s easy to focus on the team in the field and not that stuff.”