Dana Brown, Astros’ front office have put themselves way out on a limb this offseason

No one can accuse of the Houston Astros of not being at least interesting this offseason. Somehow, the Astros signed Christian Walker, traded Kyle Tucker for Isaac Paredes and Cam Smith, finally traded away Ryan Pressly, and are still somehow in play to bring Alex Bregman back to Houston.

When the Astros' offseason started it seemed like disappointment would follow, but general manager Dana Brown's creativity has created a much more interesting picture heading into 2025.

On one hand, the Astros have added a top tier prospect in Smith, a versatile bat in Paredes, and hopefully solved their Jose Abreu mistake by signing Walker. However, bringing back Bregman is anything but a sure thing at this point and all of these offseason machinations DID cost them Tucker and Pressly — which is no small deal. Oh, and the front office also let Yusei Kikuchi and Justin Verlander walk in free agency.

Dana Brown's wheeling and dealing with the Astros could put him in Jim Crane's crosshairs

One can respect Brown's hustle this winter, however, so much has changed this offseason that it isn't outside the realm of possibilities for his job to be on the line.

From a process perspective, Brown's moves are completely defensible this offseason. There was no guarantee whatsoever that the Astros could extend Tucker, so saving some money and giving their farm system a boost by trading him had a lot of merit. Houston has a chance to bring Bregman back, so moving Pressly off their payroll when the team already has Bryan Abreu and Josh Hader is equally logical.

However, baseball is a results-oriented business and we've seen how owner Jim Crane can be even when Houston is a good team. It's likely that Crane was a part of all of these decisions, but anyone who thinks he wouldn't be willing to make Brown the scapegoat if all of these changes don't work out is fooling themselves.

The most likely outcome here is that the Astros will be a good baseball team in 2025 and that will be enough to appease Crane. Brown has kept payroll under control, made impact moves when needed, and has even fixed many of Crane's personal mistakes along the way. That said, if the Astros underperform this coming season, fans should fully expect Brown's job security to become an open question.

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