Oakland A’s given permission to interview Angels’ assistant hitting coach Dave Hansen

It was reported earlier in the week that the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim were not going to allow the Oakland Athletics to interview assistant hitting coach Dave Hansen for their open hitting coach position. That has now changed.
GM Jerry Dipoto confirmed that #Angels gave #Athletics permission to interview asst. hitting coach Dave Hansen for OAK hitting coach job.
— Mike DiGiovanna (@MikeDiGiovanna) October 23, 2014
Since Chili Davis has left to become apart of the Boston Red Sox coaching staff, it was believed that Hansen was the number one target to replace Davis. Susan Slusser, the A’s beat writer for the San Francisco Chronicle is backing her initial report,
As I wrote on Sunday, Hansen, the #Angels assistant hitting coach, is a frontrunner for the #Athletics open hitting coach position.
— Susan Slusser (@susanslusser) October 23, 2014
Dave Hansen was the interim hitting coach for the entire season after Don Baylor went down with a leg injury on Opening Day. This could be a huge loss for the Angels who were first in runs scored (773), fourth in the American League in on-base percentage, ahead of the A’s and produced 30 offensive WAR, which was second in all of baseball.
The Angels jumped to the top of the league in runs and offensive WAR after being sixth in 2013. If the A’s do end up signing Hansen to become the hitting coach, it will be his third team in three seasons all in the American League West after being with Seattle in 2013.