Astros Fire Brad Mills

The Houston Astros have “officially relieved manager Brad Mills, hitting coach Mike Barnett and first base coach Bobby Meacham of their duties” according to the team’s official Twitter account.

The news broke following a 12-4 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Saturday night which gave the Astros the 82nd loss of their season, clinching a losing record.

Brad Mills was not a product of the “Jeff Luhnow Era” and many fans of the team believed that Mills being relieved of his duties was all but a certainty. Mills firing at midseason makes him the fourth consecutive Astros manager to be fired to be removed while the team still had games to play (Jimy Williams, Phil Garner, Cecil Cooper).

Replacements for Mills as well as Barnett and Meacham are expected to be named tomorrow to finish out the remainder of the season.

The timing of the announcement does seem somewhat strange although the announcement itself is far from a shock.

“I appreciate our fans” said Mills, “I appreciate the players and I wish the best for this organization.” Mills also said “I tried to do the best job I could” in quotes which were tweeted by Zachary Levine on his Twitter.

Brad Mills compiled a 171-274 record during his tenure with the Astros.