Overview
- The Astros announced on Wednesday that Brad Ausmus will take over as manager, a decision made and announced by new general manager Randy Flores.
- Ausmus is a former Astros catcher with five years of prior big-league managing experience and a combined managerial record of 386-422 from stints with the Tigers and Angels.
- Jeff Bagwell, a senior advisor and longtime Ausmus teammate, participated in the interview process, a detail that has prompted public questions about who holds final decision authority in Houston.
- Ausmus is leaving his bench-coach role with the New York Yankees, creating an immediate vacancy on Aaron Boone’s staff and triggering a search in New York for a replacement.
- The club’s next tasks are to finalize Ausmus’s coaching staff and set roster priorities before a tight offseason window that could be constrained by collective-bargaining timing and limits on player contact.