We never would have guessed that a few weeks out of Spring Training that the Astros would be one of three teams searching for a new manager. Now that we are over a week away from the MLB report on the sign stealing scandal and the surprising dismissals of AJ Hinch and Jeff Luhnow, we have a pretty clear picture of who the candidates are to become the next manager of the club. If you missed it, I detailed all of the names that have been linked to the job to this point, with some quick thoughts on each name. You can get that blog post by clicking here.
Last night ahead of the Houston Sports Awards, Astros Owner Jim Crane gave a few updates on where the search is at now and the potential timeline on when his decision might be made on who is the next man to lead his club.
So with those updates from Crane last night, here is what we know about their search so far. They have cast a wide net so far and possibly have more names that they will speak to as this week moves on. The names that we know to have interviewed so far include their current bench coach Joe Espada, Buck Showalter, John Gibbons, Will Venable, Dusty Baker and Eduardo Perez. Today, the club is interviewing former Rangers manager Jeff Banister, bringing the total number of interviews to this point to seven. How many more names might be added to the list of interviews is not yet known.
Gathering what we can from the couple of Crane clips above, it is clear that Dusty Baker is on the mind of Jim Crane and towards the top of his list to become the next manager of the team. While this is not about tearing down Dusty Baker as an option for the Astros, this is more about who I believe is the best fit for the Astros in this moment of turmoil and moving forward.
The answer for me to who they should pick in this search is...Jeff Banister.
While I do think Baker would be a fine choice for the Astros if that is the way they go, Banister makes more sense for me at this moment than the long time Major League skipper, Baker, does.
Over the last few days I have battled with who I think is right for this job and the more thought I have put into it, the more I find myself pulling for Banister than I originally thought I would. The Astros are in need of someone that can come in and on the fly deal with all the noise. They need a guy who will command a room, instantly earn the respect of the players and have a strong influence of managing a team in today's world of analytics. While I originally thought that just promoting from within and giving the job to Joe Espada was the way to go, I wonder that given his connection of being here during this scandal will keep Crane from wanting to hire someone that might have been involved in what has gone on. If they were going to go with Espada, wouldn't they have jumped to making that move fairly quickly instead of going through this lengthy search? These are the things that I wonder when it comes to his actual shot of getting the job.
In 2014, the Astros interviewed Banister for the opening before deciding on AJ Hinch to become their new manager. The baseball lifer would however find himself as a first time manager shortly after that, landing the job just up the road with the Texas Rangers. After two straight AL West titles to start his managerial career, the Rangers ticked downward in each of the next two seasons, leading to his firing late in the 2018 season, which came a surprise to many in the baseball world.
A well respected man in the industry, his grind to get to where he is today is beyond admirable. Having seen success and failure as a manager in his first shot to do it, he feels like a classic example of a guy that might do an even better job in his second opportunity, learning from some of the things that went wrong in his first run. His players while with the Rangers always raved about him and his teams always played a tough hard nose style of baseball, while still having fun. In today's game, having a guy that inspires that, while still connecting with this new age of player is a huge plus.
The Astros are a team that run on analytics more than most. Being able to utilize all of the information that numbers provide, while having the human element to it all as a manager is what will lead to success more often than not in today's baseball world. It of course does not hurt having one of the deepest and most talented rosters in the league to do all of these things too. During his tenure as the Pirates bench coach ahead of his time with the Rangers, Banister was lauded as a guy that helped bring analytics to the field for a franchise that had not utilized them before. When the Rangers hired him to be their manager, Jon Daniels made it a point to say that Banister's knowledge and belief in the use of them was something that really helped him land that job. The Astros are not suddenly going to abandon what has helped bring them so much success and it is why hiring someone that buys in and understands their line of thinking is so massively important moving forward.
While I do not know how Dusty Baker feels about making decisions as a manager based off of what the numbers tell you, with Banister I know that they would not be bringing in someone that does not utilize and appreciate the importance of analytics in today's game. My desire to see Banister land the job is not strictly based off his knowledge and use of analytics in his past, but it is a part of my reasoning behind it. More than anything the Astros need a strong leader in this odd time that they currently find themselves sitting in. And as I continue to sit and think about all of the qualities I feel are important for the Astros next manager, I keep coming back to the same conclusion...Jeff Banister is the best choice for the Astros moving forward.