Off to a 6-14 start, the Astros have been one of the biggest disappointments in Major League Baseball this season. For a team that was as high as third on some of the odds boards to win the World Series, occupying real estate in the standings behind the Oakland A's is suboptimal, to say the least.
Any time a baseball team underperforms, the seats underneath the butts of management, both in the dugout and front office, will heat up a bit. Espada is only three weeks into his managerial career, so he's in practically zero danger of getting fired, and similarly, Brown is still fairly new to his role. However, both Espada and Brown face unique challenges in navigating the future terrain.
Let's start higher up the food chain with Brown. The video below is an interview that Hall of Famer, and senior adviser to Astros owner Jim Crane, Reggie Jackson did with Jon Heyman and Joel Sherman, in which Jackson outlines how decisions (such as opting to bail on contract negotiations with free agent pitcher Blake Snell) are made inside the Astros' building:
This is a terrifying minute of audio, if you're a Houston Astros fan. In a league where the understood normal power structure is to have an empowered general manager making his own decisions, with understandable owner input and approval on the major decisions (even Jeff Luhnow needed that a-ok, back in the day), the Astros are operating with some weird committee of old school Hall of Famers who may or may not have a bigger voice in the owner's ear than the actual GM.Reggie tells us here why his Astros didn’t sign Snell. “We don’t play that game.” Reggie talks A’s, Yanks, Bregman. Altuve in full cast. Praise for Volpe, concern for pitchers
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) April 12, 2024
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On the surface, this feels like, at a minimum, a very difficult situation for Brown to navigate and mold the team in his vision. Honestly, hearing Jackson describe how decisions are made with the Astros, it sounds like Brown was brought in almost largely just to rebuild the dilapidated minor league system, and lead the major league decisions to the Cooperstown Three and Crane. In other words, I have a hard time blaming Brown for anything going wrong with the Astros, because I don't really know how much he has to do with it in the first place.
As for Espada, it's way too early to say he is the problem or a root cause of the Astros' horrible record to start the season. Thus far, Espada's decision making seems about as sound as it could be while trying to navigate a sea of injuries and a black hole at first base.
Where Espada may run into trouble is with fan perception, if the team doesn't turn things around. Whereas A.J. Hinch and Dusty Baker got to operate in a Houston sports universe where the other coaches around town were Bill O'Brien, David Culley, Lovie Smith, and Stephen Silas, Espada is having to manage and do press conferences in a world where noted "dawgs" (the good kind) Ime Udoka and DeMeco Ryans have their respective teams in rapid ascent mode. That's tough.
Hey look, at the end of the day, Brown and Espada are getting opportunities that most managers and personnel people around the sport dream about. They're working for a winner. But all good things come to an end, and Espada and Brown may have gotten in on this existing good thing with the eventual nosedive somewhere in sight.
Listen to Sean Pendergast on SportsRadio 610 from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. weekdays. Also, follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/SeanTPendergast, on Instagram at instagram.com/sean.pendergast, and like him on Facebook at facebook.com/SeanTPendergast.
