Astros’ delay in hiring new GM could cost them dearly this offseason on multiple fronts

Jim Crane and the Houston Astros fired Dana Brown on August 24 and then watched their season end by getting swept in the Wild Card round by the Chicago White Sox. They spent most of October trying to get a Brewers executive who had his hands full winning a World Series. Then they pivoted to Randy Flores at the end of last month and announced it in a press release. It sure seems like he wasn’t Plan A.

Now they pay for the wait. The collective bargaining agreement expires at 11:50 pm EST on December 1, and a lockout is all but a sure thing to happen. That means all transactions freeze and nobody in the organization can even talk to a player on the 40-man roster (with some very specific exceptions). Flores took the job with about a month to work, and now he’s down to less than four weeks. Time slows for no general manager.

Randy Flores has a manager, a staff, and a roster to sort out before the Astros' offseason freezes

Houston is one of the last teams in baseball without a manager (shoutout Angels) after the Mariners hired Jason Kanzler. There are candidates, which is at least a start. Brad Ausmus and Morgan Ensberg, Flores’ college teammate at USC, have been floated as possibilities. Albert Pujols is of interest. Crane even said that he’d interviewed a few candidates before Flores was hired, which was either in the name of efficiency and saving time or a preview of how much room Flores will have to work. It’s likely a little from both sides.

But it’s more than manager. When Joe Espada left, so did several coaches, including bench coach Omar Lopez, who was offered a chance to stay in the organizatoin in a different role. That’s a lot of seats to fill, and Flores has to do that while learning the ropes of his new job and workplace.

But at least Flores is in place to build the roster, where the lack of time is very apparent. Jeremy Peña is a logical trade candidate since he’ll be eligible for free agency following 2027. Isaac Paredes is in the same boat. The rotation needs a lot of help. They need to replace two leverage relievers. And the outfield simply didn’t work in 2026. It needs a reimagining at the very least. These are all big decisions.

Now, Flores has to make all of them about a team he’s barely had a minute to evaluate from the inside. The non-tender deadline is coming up in a couple of weeks, and the free agent market figures to go a little crazy leading up to December 1.

Based on the last time the owners locked out the players, that week is going to be a frenzy. Max Scherze, Corey Seager, Marcus Semien, and so many others signed in the last week before the lockout in 2021. If it’s a similar sprint to the lockout, the teams with a clear plan will have a very clear advantage. The Astros are still stuck with onboarding paperwork.

It’s not like this has snuck up on anyone. Crane probably knew the CBA calendar better than anyone when he moved on from Brown. He definitely knew it when he was photographed with Matt Kleine on October 13. And he undoubtedly knew it when the search kept going while Milwaukee kept winning. 

Kleine was the easiest and most sensible fit. He’s young, at 40, and while he’s a Brewers lifer, he started out as an Astros media relations intern in 2007 (He was with an organization that just won a title with a mid-range payroll, which is a model Crane wants to study. But he had also signed an extension with the Brewers, meaning a buyout would be required on any deal. The report was that Kleine wanted a president of baseball operations title, and Crane has never given that out before. 

Crane still hasn’t given out that title. Kleine is still in Milwaukee. And Flores, who could have been hired a month earlier when he interviewed, got the job instead. 

Crane has said the club was diligent in their decision-making process and thought Flores is a perfect fit. And he might very well be. None of this is to discount Flores and the job he’s capable of doing. He has a scouting background in an organization that badly needs it. He knows how to work under payroll constraints. But the fact is that if he was the guy all along, waiting until October 30 to hire him is tough to explain. If he wasn’t, the Astros settled for their second choice because they waited a month for their first. Either answer sort of stinks.

No matter how he got the job, Flores now inherits the consequences. He didn’t make the mess, but he has to clean it up. Crane spent more than two months finding his next general manager, and if the lockout comes as expected, his new general manager will get about half that time to check off all the items on his to-do list. Good luck, Randy!

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