It has been a rough week plus now in Houston sports and we desperately need something good to happen for us soon as we are all on edge a bit at the moment. Following the MLB report on the Astros sign stealing issue, Jim Crane surprised me and most of Houston when he announced that he was firing AJ Hinch and Jeff Luhnow. At the end of the day, I get why Crane felt the best move for the franchise would be cleaning house at the top and letting his top two baseball guys go. The Astros might just need a fresh start. That does not take away any of the pain that this has brought on anyone involved or who loves the Astros, but maybe over time it helps heal some wounds. While I would not have let go of AJ Hinch specifically, I do not cut the checks and I like all of us have to put my faith in one of the two best owners that this city has ever had in making the right decisions for the team moving forward.
The Astros have to move as fast as possible on finding a new manager with their being two other openings in baseball as part of the fallout from this scandal, but they cannot afford to make a decision without doing all of the necessary homework when looking for their new head man. To put it lightly, this a massive and very delicate situation. Whoever they decide is best to lead the club moving forward in 2020, the man that lands the job is still inheriting one of the favorites in all of baseball this season. It is as desirable of a job that there is in sports today, despite the turmoil that has mounted of late. The next manager is walking into a situation with a team that should once again have no huge issue winning 95+ games in 2020 as the favorites to win their fourth straight AL West title. With so many elements involved when it comes to the right fit to lead the club, let's take a look at some of the known candidates that have already interviewed and a few of the other names rumored that might get a look in Houston.
Candidates to already interview for the job:
Buck Showalter:
The longtime manager has had plenty of success leading clubs in his managerial career, but has failed to reach the ultimate success of winning a title. The 63 year old Showalter has been a big league manager for 20 seasons in his career with four different teams. Starting his managerial career at the age of 36 back in 1992, he spent four seasons with the Yankees, having two winning seasons during his tenure in New York. In 1998 he was the choice to be the first manager for the expansion Arizona Diamondbacks club, leading the D-Backs for the first three seasons of their existence, making the postseason once during his tenure there. After a few years away from managing, he landed the job with the Texas Rangers where he would spend the next four seasons starting in 2003, leading them to just one winning season in his four year run. His longest and most successful run overall came in his last stop with the Baltimore Orioles where he spent nine years, leading the birds to three postseason appearances that including an ALCS appearance in 2014.
With a career record of 1551-1517, Showalter has clearly had some level of success to stick around as a manager as long as he has. His postseason track record is not much to right home about, leading just five of the twenty teams he has led to the postseason where he has a career record of 9-14. Showalter represents the anti-Astros candidate of the bunch that have been rumored for or interviewed for the job. It has been well documented his resistance to analytics and that just does not play in today's game. While he brings something that might be important for the Astros in this moment of turmoil, that being experience, he is personally for me, the last guy you want to give this job to.
John Gibbons:
Two different tenures in Toronto as the manager of the Blue Jays, the 57 year old Gibbons is an intriguing name for me. He second stint in Toronto led to more success than his first go around, leading the Jays to back-to-back ALCS appearances in 2015 and 2016 as a wild card team each of those years. Living just down the road in San Antonio, Gibbons has a bit of the old school mixed in with the new age you want in a manager having been with a Jays team that put more emphasis on analytics in second run north of the border. With experience on his side, he might not have the big level of success you are hoping for in a manager for a club of the current status of the Astros, it is obviously almost impossible to find someone that has won it all when you are this late into the winter when looking for a new manager. Of the candidates that have interviewed so far, Gibbons is towards the top of the list for me.
Dusty Baker:
The oldest and most experienced candidate of the options that we know the Astros have looked into so far, the 70 year old Baker would bring a respected and calming influence to this Astros team. With a guy that has been around the game as long as he has, you wonder how he would feel and manage his way through a season for a team that is so heavily analytically driven, but unlike Showalter, there is not a lot that you will find out there about him resisting baseballs movement towards being a numbers driven game. Baker has been close many times, managing just one of his teams in his 22 years to a World Series, that coming back in his last season managing the San Francisco Giants in 2002. After runs with some success in Chicago and Cincinnati following his longest tenure as a manager in San Francisco, Baker last managed the Washington Nationals for two seasons in 2016 and 2017. Winning 95 and 97 games in each of his two years in DC, his firing by the Nats surprised many after that 2017 season. So much of his career has been defined by coming so close, it makes most wonder if he could ever be a guy to get over the hump and win it all. For me, the stability he would bring to the Astros in a dramatic time like they are in now, would be intriguing. He is well respected and teams have always played hard for him under his watch. How he would adapt to managing in the American League for the first time in his career raises a few question, but the biggest one that I have has to be how he would handle the importance the Astros put on using analytics on a daily basis. From a calming the choppy waters standpoint, Baker looks like a very strong candidate at the moment despite the questions I might have.
Will Venable:
The 37 year old Cubs third base coach has reportedly interviewed for the job, but it sounds like the odds of him landing in Houston are very slim. Over the weekend he sounded like a guy that is committed to his duties in Chicago, you wonder if that is because he got the sense that landing the job in Houston was unlikely. Being a younger guy, you would think he would have a fairly easy time relating to today's player, much like AJ Hinch did. His lack of experience as a manager however does bring into question how strong a candidate he would actually be for a team going through what the Astros are going through.
Eduardo Perez:
Perez is expected to interview for the job on Tuesday. The son of the Hall of Famer, Tony Perez, the 13 year MLB vet represents a true baseball lifer having been around the big league game since he was a child. The Astros bench coach in 2013 under then manager Bo Porter, he would bring some familiarity to Houston after being here for that one year. With limited coaching experience at the big league level, Perez has been around the game after his career ended, mainly as a member of the media with ESPN and MLB Network Radio. Rumored to have finished second for the Mets job before it went to Carlos Beltran, you have to think that New York would still have interest in making him their new manager. Again, with little coaching experience, it brings to question how he would do in his first shot at running a big league club. But with his involvement in the game throughout his entire life, you have to think he would fit well when it comes to relating to today's players having been around the game so much. Not my favorite candidate of the bunch, but not worthy of disliking as an option at all. You will never know how a guy will fare as a manager until he is given a shot to do so.
Other Rumored Candidates:
Joe Espada:
The Astros current bench coach is for me, the most logical fit to become the 24th manager in the history of the franchise. Having been here since 2018, Espada was a candidate for both the Giants and Cubs openings earlier this winter, interviewing twice for both jobs. Viewed as a future manager throughout the industry, keeping the stability of the current staff by going with Espada makes the most sense to me. He knows exactly how the Astros like to run and the players have had nothing but great things to say about him since he took over as the bench coach in 2018 when Alex Cora left to manage the Boston Red Sox. You wonder however with Espada if Astros Owner Jim Crane is wary of promoting from within for a guy that was around and obviously privy to what was going on with the scandal. Despite that wonder, Espada remains my personal favorite to be the man to lead the Astros moving forward.
Jeff Banister:
This one would probably get in the crawl of some obviously after his history with the Astros during his time with the Texas Rangers, but ruling out Banister would be silly just based off not liking him for that reason. Bringing experience with him, he had a good start to his managerial career with the Rangers before it came to an end. Having been around the game for a very long time and managing into today's world of analytics, Banister for me is a logical fit. His players during his time with the Rangers loved him and I have no doubt that it would be the same here in Houston. The native Houstonian and UH grad feels like a very good fit and would be towards the top of my list of the candidates that we know of. Reports say he will interview for the job this week.
Raul Ibanez:
The long time MLB vet is a well respected man across all of baseball, currently serving as special assistant for the Los Angeles Dodgers. While his name has only been mentioned in some rumors as a candidate, it will be interesting to see if he gets an interview here in Houston. Always known as tough player, you would imagine that Ibanez would relate well with the players in today's game. Without any managerial experience, he has interviewed for jobs in the past and rumored to have been the runner up for the Rays job back in 2014 even before he had officially retired as a player. Being involved with an organization like the Dodgers over the last few years, his fit in today's game is something that would not worry me given that he has been around a club that emphasizes the use of analytics. If the Astros are smart, they should absolutely interview him for their opening.
Bruce Bochy:
It is not happening, but you have to at least put the name down on paper. He has said he is going to take a year off before deciding if he wants to manage again, if for some reason he changed his mind, you would be dumb not to be knocking at his door.
Time is of the essence for the Astros in their search for a new manager as Spring Training nears and here is to hoping the next man leading the charge continues the Astros run of success over the last five years. The candidates listed above are the names that we have heard the most of so far, we will see if there any wild cards out there that we have not heard of to this point.