So, does Randy Flores actually have full autonomy? Because if Brad Ausmus is indeed the choice for manager, the optics certainly aren’t great considering how he was initially interviewed before Flores was even hired.
We’ve all known for a while that Jeff Bagwell has had some involvement with his old friend interviewing for past jobs within the Astros organization, whether as general manager or manager. He was a candidate for the former job before Dana Brown was hired in early 2023 and has been linked to the latter role a couple of times already. If Ausmus is finalized as the manager this time around, then we shouldn’t be surprised.
Of course, hiring Ausmus would raise additional questions about Flores’ overall level of authority. While Crane did mention in Flores’ introductory press conference that he would have full autonomy, his follow-up statements cast some confusion about what that exactly meant. Ever since the firings of Jeff Luhnow and A.J. Hinch following the sign-stealing scandal, the organization has acted, at best, in an exceedingly disjointed manner. At worst, that dysfunction has continued, albeit in a different manner. This decision certainly feeds into that narrative.
I do want to leave space, for as unlikely as it seems, perhaps Flores determined Ausmus was the best choice for the job. Even if the optics aren’t good, if Flores really felt that way, then he should have the autonomy to make the hire, controversy be damned. It’ll be interesting to hear the organization’s response to the overall process, including the weird timeline of this hiring process, although I doubt we will be satisfied with the answers.
As for Ausmus’ credentials, he was the only one of the known candidates to have managed at the major league level before, having held the same job with the Tigers and Angels. While he won the AL Central title with Detroit in his first season back in 2014, he ultimately finished his tenure there with a .486 winning percentage through the 2017 season. He lasted only one season with the Angels in 2019, posting a 72-90 record.
But as with any manager, it is difficult to parse how much responsibility Ausmus actually bears for the win-loss records. The Tigers were nearing the end of their contending window during his tenure. And we’re all familiar with how the Angels have operated through much of the past decade. From what I can recall, though, fans of those teams weren’t particularly enthralled with Ausmus as a manager, with some unsavory stories floating online about the culture. Perhaps not the absolute worst in baseball in a given season, but also far from the upper echelon. It’ll be interesting to see whether his experience as Aaron Boone’s bench coach with the Yankees might change his approach as a now third-time manager.
Ultimately, it will prove difficult for the Astros to provide a satisfactory answer that Flores came to his own conclusion about whether to hire Ausmus, fair or not. Bagwell’s presence around baseball operations has been apparent for years, and it is easy to connect the dots with this hire. Whether it is a quality hire or not will be determined in due time, but the process to get to this point leaves much to be desired.
Feature photo from Astros on X
Our Bagwellian nightmare lingers on . . . not an optimal choice, from this ‘casual’ perspective
From Luhnow-Hinch to Flores-Ausmus, the descent from analytics people to baseball people has been dramatic and so the results. I am afraid we’ll have to wait for Crane to sell the team, and say a prayer. Isn’t that funny? Teams are imitating the Astros way, and we are imitating the “me too” teams from the past.