Bizarre Astros minor-league coaching purge hints at organizational dysfunction

Whenever a new front office takes over a team, the subsequent years often lead to a lot of turnover within the organization. New general managers typically want to install scouts and executives that are aligned with their philosophy, and that unfortunately comes at the expense of some folks' jobs. For the Houston Astros, it appears that something potentially more insidious than that is currently at work.

Dana Brown was hired by the Astros before 2023 to fix what was a profound mess. Astros owner Jim Crane had just had an extremely public feud with former GM James Click, and there was a need to bring in a general manager that had a clear vision for the team's future. At minimum, getting an executive that could blunt Crane's intrusions into the team's operations was a must.

For the most part, Brown has accomplished that. He got Abreu and Montero off the Astros' roster and seems to have a good grasp of what he wants and doesn't want to do as the head of a front office.

However, that change does seem to have come at a cost.

Astros appear to be undergoing a sea of change in the minor leagues and player development

The exact coaches/personnel that have been shuffled out have yet to be completely confirmed, although MiLB hitting coach Andrew Cresci confirmed on Twitter/X that his time with the Astros has come to an end. Understandably, this has caused concern, both within and outside the organization, that Houston is going through a period of dysfunction.

That may be true, but it also shouldn't be unexpected. Brown is a very deliberate executive, and the more likely explanation here is that he wanted to wait a couple years while he instilled his philosophy atop the executive ladder before making changes further down. Now that he knows what the organization has (and doesn't have) when it comes to his minor-league coaches, it was pretty inevitable that the Astros were going to see some changes, even if the scale of these changes is pretty wild.

For now, Brown deserves the benefit of the doubt when it comes to how he wants to run the team. He has certainly made some eyebrow-raising moves, both in terms of how he has managed the Astros' roster and in his first two draft classes as Houston's GM. However, he has generally been at least mostly correct in the moves he has made, and Brown does seem to have a clear plan in place. That doesn't mean their won't be pain points, like the massive minor-league coaching turnover, but Astros fans shouldn't panic just yet until they see exactly what he has up his sleeve. For better or worse.

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