The Houston Astros lose assistant GM David Stearns to the Brewers

The Houston Astros got their 79th win of the season yesterday. But the talk of the town was that George Springer finally got onboard the homer train, his first since his return from the DL and that assistant GM David Stearns has left the Astros. Why would you leave a team who is in playoff competition? To become the main general manager of the Milwaukee Brewers, that’s why. You may not have heard of Stearns before, but he has had a big hand in rebuilding the Astros. He was in his third year with the Astros, and the now 30-year-old will step out from Jeff Luhnow’s shadow.

I am not exactly sure what an assistant GM’s responsibilities are, but the Astros will seek out a new one ASAP. One thing that I do know is that someone within the Astros organization got a GM job is a good sign. If your organization is a mess, no one will seek to hire any of your staff. The Astros have gone from three years of the number one pick to a team fighting for the playoffs the fifth season. Despite some of the recent struggles, the Astros have been a big surprise team this year.

Instead of telling all about Stearns that you can read elsewhere, I wanted to discuss a few items that I found ironic. I’m not saying anything of this is true, just a few of my thoughts. I will bring back Conspiracy Theory‘s Jerry Fletcher (Mel Gibson’s character) to present these oddities.

Let’s Make a Trade

How long has Stearns been interviewing with the Brewers? At the trade deadline, the Astros and Brewers hooked up with a trade for outfielder Carlos Gomez and Mike Fiers. In that trade, the Astros included some highly ranked prospects in return with the Brewers. They received Brett Phillips, Domingo Santana, Josh Hader, and Adrian Houser from the Astros.

Below is a faux interview with the fictional character Jerry Fletcher.

Fletcher: Did Stearns know that he was at the top of the line for the Brewers GM role and wanted to make him look like a genius in his first full year next year. He could have insisted to Luhnow that they trade those four players to the Brewers. He got rid of the hot-head Gomez and got in return a nice prospect package. Was this a conspiracy?

CTH: That’s crazy, there would be more talk about this on TMZ than in Jeff Luhnow’s office. I’m sure that he was able to trust Stearns to give ethically, the right advice for the Astros. This trade seems like a Luhnow type of deal, but I do agree that Stearns will reap the benefits of Phillips and Hader for years to come. It is ironic though that of the 29 other teams, the trade happened with the Brewers. There was no insider trading here.

Ground control

More from Climbing Tal's Hill

Fletcher: After being hacked by the Cardinals, the Astros need to be careful when they lose their executive. Is Stearns right now downloading all the player files onto his personal Dropbox? Luhnow needs to change the password immediately. We don’t need a repeat of #HackGate for the Astros. If the Astros have already started scouting for the 2016 draft, is Stearns going to take all that info with him?

CTH: No, Mr. Fletcher, I don’t think that this is the same situation that occurred in St. Louis. By all accounts, there was a friendly relationship in the office between Luhnow and Stearns, unlike the situation is St. Louis with Walt Jocketty. Stearns can’t forget the information that he has learned about players, but I don’t think that he will do anything unprofessional. I wish Mr. Stearns good luck in Milwaukee, and he will enjoy watching Phillips play for the next century.

Overall, this is a good thing for the Astros that other people are starting to take notice of the success the Astros are having. Let’s just not look to close please Cardinals. Good luck David, and thanks to the fictional Fletcher for appearing in this post. Once again, there is no evidence of this, but I wanted to give you something to think about.

Next: CTH’s Houston Astros Players of the Week (Sept. 14 – 20)

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