With the retirement of Dusty Baker, the Houston Astros needed to find a new manager.
Baker had been in charge of the Astros from 2020 until the culmination of the 2023 campaign.
He is set to rest and enjoy his family after a long, productive career in baseball and the Astros needed to move on with another person in charge of the clubhouse and the dugout.
As expected, they went with an internal candidate, a guy who had been the natural successor for quite some time now: Joe Espada.
The news was reported over the weekend, and the Astros made it official on Monday with a video of Espada signing his contract.
Official. pic.twitter.com/0QnNN7dB0e
— Houston Astros (@astros) November 13, 2023
It’s official, then: the Astros promoted Espada to manager after six seasons as a bench coach.
He joined the team in 2018 and, since then, the Astros have made six straight American League Championship Series (ALCS) appearances.
They went to three World Series, winning one, with Espada as Baker’s right hand on the bench.
He is ready for a featured role now.
Espada has accumulated coaching and managing experience through the years.
He was a coach with the New York Yankees before landing in Houston, from 2015 to 2017, and was a member of the Miami Marlins organization before that.
He also managed the Puerto Rico national team for the 2013 and 2017 World Baseball Classic, winning the silver medal in both tournaments.
Espada knows his baseball and is popular among Astros players, making him a natural fit for the role.
He also has an understanding of analytics and knows the system from top to bottom.
This could be a sneaky good promotion for Houston.
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