The Astros have hired Cardinals assistant GM\/scouting director Randy Flores as their new general manager. The team announced the move on Friday evening.<\/p>\n
\u201cRandy has had a huge impact on the Cardinals over the last 10 seasons,\u201d Houston owner Jim Crane said in the press release. \u201cThroughout the entire interview process, we\u2019ve been thoroughly impressed with Randy and with his background in scouting and player acquisition. We\u2019re happy to welcome Randy and his family to the Astros and we can\u2019t wait to get to work on bringing another championship to Houston.\u201d Flores and Crane will meet with the media during an introductory press conference on Monday morning.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a surprise turn of events. The Athletic reported on Thursday that Brewers assistant GM Matt Kleine had emerged as the frontrunner<\/a> for the position. Chandler Rome of The Athletic<\/a> reports that Houston offered the GM job to Kleine on Wednesday evening, hours before Milwaukee won its first World Series.<\/p>\n Although it\u2019s unclear precisely what changed, The Athletic suggests that Kleine had been seeking the title \u2018president of baseball operations\u2019 earlier in the week. They write that the Milwaukee AGM never pulled his name out of the running, though it\u2019s possible there was some kind of hangup in negotiations on title and\/or salary.<\/p>\n In any case, it\u2019s a momentous step in Flores\u2019 career. The 51-year-old takes over a baseball operations department for the first time. Flores had spent more than a decade in the St. Louis front office, climbing the ranks from scouting director to assistant GM over the 2018-19 offseason. He\u2019d coincidentally been hired as scouting director in 2015 to replace Chris Correa, who\u2019d been fired and ultimately imprisoned for illegally accessing the Astros\u2019 internal databases early in Jeff Lunhow\u2019s GM tenure.<\/p>\n Flores is a former big league player, a lefty reliever who appeared in 350 games with four teams between 2002-10. He won a World Series ring in \u201906 with St. Louis. After retiring as a player, Flores completed a Master\u2019s degree in education while working as an assistant coach with the USC baseball team. He also run a company that provided video scouting reports on amateur players. Flores\u2019 background in amateur scouting has carried into his role with the Cardinals, whose drafts he\u2019s run for the last 10 years.<\/p>\n St. Louis has had a lot of success as a draft and develop organization over the years, especially in the middle rounds. They\u2019d begun to fall behind on pitching development in the early 2020s, which led to a few middling seasons and their ongoing retool. The Cardinals appear to be back on the upswing thanks in part to a core of position player draftees like JJ Wetherholt<\/a>,\u00a0Masyn Winn<\/a>,\u00a0Jordan Walker<\/a> and Alec Burleson<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Cardinals have had their share of misses as well. They used first-round selections on Delvin Perez<\/a>, Nolan Gorman<\/a>,\u00a0Zack Thompson<\/a>,\u00a0Cooper Hjerpe<\/a>, and\u00a0Chase Davis<\/a> during Flores\u2019 tenure. No club is going to have a spotless draft record, though, and they\u2019ve found potential building blocks in Wetherholt and Walker. Winn, Burleson and current top prospect Joshua B\u00e1ez<\/a> were second-round or competitive balance round picks. They nabbed a couple serviceable starters in Andre Pallante<\/a> and Kyle Leahy<\/a> deeper in the draft.<\/p>\n Flores\u2019 scouting background will take on added importance in Houston as they navigate a potentially closing competitive window. The Astros returned to the postseason for the ninth time in the past 10 years, but that was largely by default thanks to one of the worst divisions in history. Houston snuck into the postseason with an 81-81 record, their worst in a full season since 2014. The White Sox swept them by a combined 13-6 margin during the Wild Card Series.<\/p>\n Crane clearly wasn\u2019t satisfied with backing into the playoffs. He moved on from former GM Dana Brown shortly after the trade deadline. After the season, Crane decided not to re-sign free agent manager Joe Espada. Flores will be tasked with leading the managerial search and facing some significant roster questions.<\/p>\n Houston still has a handful of star players, most notably presumptive AL MVP\u00a0Yordan Alvarez<\/a>. They have one of the game\u2019s best shortstops in\u00a0Jeremy Pe\u00f1a<\/a>, an ace in\u00a0Hunter Brown<\/a>, an elite closer in Josh Hader<\/a>, an above-average corner infielder in Isaac Paredes<\/a>, and a solid starting catcher in Yainer Diaz<\/a>.<\/p>\n All those players are within two years of reaching free agency. Pe\u00f1a will be a free agent after the 2027 season, potentially as the #1 player in the class. Paredes will join him on the open market next winter. Alvarez ($26MM annually) and Hader ($19MM annually) are signed through 2028. Brown and Diaz are under arbitration control for two years.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the Astros have bloated contracts for\u00a0Jose Altuve<\/a> and\u00a0Carlos Correa<\/a>. They still have one too many infielders and would need to eat money to find a taker for\u00a0Christian Walker<\/a>, who\u2019ll make $20MM next season. They have one of the worst outfields in MLB and are short at least one starting pitcher behind Brown, Peter Lambert<\/a>,\u00a0Hayden Wesneski<\/a> and\u00a0Cristian Javier<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Astros finished this past season with a competitive balance tax payroll around $238MM, as shown on MLBTR\u2019s Payroll Tracker<\/a> (via contributor Ethan Hullihen). They have a 2027 estimate in the $210-215MM range, assuming non-tenders of Jake Meyers<\/a>,\u00a0Taylor Trammell<\/a>,\u00a0Ronel Blanco<\/a> and Bennett Sousa<\/a>.<\/p>\n Houston has never guaranteed an individual player more than $150MM. Crane was content to let Correa,\u00a0Alex Bregman<\/a> and\u00a0Kyle Tucker<\/a> leave when they hit free agency \u2014 the latter via trade before his walk year. Any or all of Pe\u00f1a, Alvarez and Brown could be trending toward $150-200MM+ contracts. Back in August, MLB Pipeline<\/a> ranked Houston\u2019s farm system the second-worst in the majors (above only San Diego\u2019s). Right fielder\u00a0Cam Smith<\/a> and reliever\u00a0AJ Blubaugh<\/a> were their only real pre-arbitration contributors this past season. Smith has impressed defensively but hasn\u2019t hit the way that the Astros expected when they made him a key piece of the Tucker deal.<\/p>\n There\u2019s an overall deficit of young, controllable talent. That\u2019s only natural after years of being one of the best teams in the league, constantly pushing in prospect capital and picking at the back of drafts (on top of the pick forfeitures for 2017). Flores and his staff will try to thread the needle and avoid a complete rebuild after 2027 or \u201928. That\u2019s made all the more challenging by having one of the league\u2019s most active owners and senior advisor Jeff Bagwell both heavily involved in baseball operations. They\u2019re not going to tear everything down within the next few months, but they\u2019ll need to balance the roster and potentially entertain one or two future-oriented moves along the way.<\/p>\n