The Big Off-Field Challenges Facing Astros Manager Joe Espada and GM Dana Brown
Whether in life, business, or in this case, sports, getting in on an existing, thriving thing feels good. However, everything — life, business, sports — has an arc, and getting in on the back end of a thriving arc can be a little treacherous. Eventually, doom lurks around the corner. For the Astros, new manager Joe Espada and second year general manager Dana Brown may be finding that out the hard way.
Off to a 6-14 start, the Astros have been one of the biggest disappointments in Major League Baseball this season. For a team that was as high as third on some of the odds boards to win the World Series, occupying real estate in the standings behind the Oakland A’s is suboptimal, to say the least.
Any time a baseball team underperforms, the seats underneath the butts of management, both in the dugout and front office, will heat up a bit. Espada is only three weeks into his managerial career, so he’s in practically zero danger of getting fired, and similarly, Brown is still fairly new to his role. However, both Espada and Brown face unique challenges in navigating the future terrain.
Let’s start higher up the food chain with Brown. The video below is an interview that Hall of Famer, and senior adviser to Astros owner Jim Crane, Reggie Jackson did with Jon Heyman and Joel Sherman, in which Jackson outlines how decisions (such as opting to bail on contract negotiations with free agent pitcher Blake Snell) are made inside the Astros’ building
Off to a 6-14 start, the Astros have been one of the biggest disappointments in Major League Baseball this season. For a team that was as high as third on some of the odds boards to win the World Series, occupying real estate in the standings behind the Oakland A’s is suboptimal, to say the least.
This is a terrifying minute of audio, if you’re a Houston Astros fan. In a league where the understood normal power structure is to have an empowered general manager making his own decisions, with understandable owner input and approval on the major decisions (even Jeff Luhnow needed that a-ok, back in the day), the Astros are operating with some weird committee of old school Hall of Famers who may or may not have a bigger voice in the owner’s ear than the actual GM.
