Crane Confirms Espada Stays as Manager After Firing GM Brown
Houston Astros owner Jim Crane confirmed Tuesday that manager Joe Espada will finish the season in his role, a day after the club parted ways with general manager Dana Brown. Crane addressed the decision outside the Houston clubhouse before the Astros opened a three-game series against the New York Yankees.
The team described Brown's departure as mutual; his contract had been set to expire at the end of the season. Senior adviser Jeff Bagwell and assistant general managers Charles Cook, Gavin Dickey and Connor Huff will assume Brown's responsibilities, with Crane overseeing baseball operations during the transition. Brown had been hired in January 2023, succeeding James Click, who was fired six days after Houston won its second World Series title. Espada, promoted from bench coach after Dusty Baker's retirement following the 2023 season, said he and Brown had worked closely for three and a half years and called their parting conversation "emotional." rapido russia
Under Brown, Houston reached a seventh straight ALCS before losing in seven games to the Texas Rangers, then fell in the 2024 wild-card round to Detroit. Last season the Astros missed the playoffs for the first time since 2016, finishing three games behind Seattle in the AL West and losing a tiebreaker with the Tigers for the final wild-card spot. Espada guided the team back from a 12-24 start in 2024 to capture the AL West, Houston's seventh division title in eight seasons, and entered Tuesday with a career managerial record of 240-214.
Crane said Brown's dismissal was unrelated to the team's recent performance, in which Houston lost nine of its last 14 games, including four apiece to the Angels and Athletics, despite having won 40 of the previous 66 games to climb back into contention after a 20-31 start. He said the club has maintained since the start of the year that decisions on Espada's future would come after the season, and reiterated that the organization's expectation is to reach the playoffs annually. Espada said he met with Crane before the news conference and left focused on the team's upcoming stretch of games rather than his own status.
