GRACE UNDER PRESSURE
Crane’s ideal manager shows poise in dealing with loaded roster
Jim Crane seeks stability in a franchise suddenly with none around it. His search for the Houston Astros’ next manager seems predicated upon pressure and how well one can handle it.
Questions of the electronic sign-stealing scheme and Major League Baseball’s unprecedented penalties will hound the team all season. Talk of departed manager A.J. Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow will dominate early season conversation. The Astros will walk into most ballparks as villains.
Maintaining poise — and managing the already-lofty expectations of a loaded roster — appears at the forefront of Crane’s mind. Managing the actual game, Crane quipped, may be no more simple than “just filling in the (lineup) card.”
“I think it’s not going to be really difficult to manage this team,” Crane said Friday before the Astros Foundation’s annual gala at Minute Maid Park.
“I think we just have to find a leader that can handle some pressure. There’s going to be a little pressure with where this team has been the last few months, so someone that can handle that also.”
In his first public appearance since firing Hinch and Luhnow on Monday, Crane set Feb. 3 as a target date for appointing a new manager. He interviewed three candidates this week — veteran skippers Buck Showalter and John Gibbons along with Cubs third base coach Will Venable.
More meetings with other candidates are set for next week. Crane’s interview process is “a
three- or four-pronged approach,” incorporating the team’s baseball operations department and other executives. Crane does the “preliminary and clean-up” portions of the evaluation.
“I had 10,000 people at one time. I’ve interviewed a lot of people. I think I know how to do that. You can always get better at it,” said Crane, the shipping mogul who built a business empire before purchasing a baseball team.
“I’ve learned from a long time that you learn a lot if four or five people talk to a key candidate. You get a lot more information. That’s the way we’ve been doing it.”
Prior managerial experience is “not mandatory, by any means,” according to Crane. His list of candidates reflects the sentiment. Gibbons and Showalter have combined to manage 31 major league seasons. Venable has never held a full-time managerial job. The extent of Astros bench coach Joe Espada’s experience came on the rare occasions Hinch was ejected in 2018 and 2019.
Whether he is promoted or not, Espada’s place on the Astros’ payroll could be secure. Crane acknowledged Friday that his new manager will inherit “most of, if not all” of Hinch’s coaching staff. Crane declined to speculate Friday whether Espada’s candidacy is affected by his role on the 2018 team — one Major League Baseball determined stole signs electronically.
“As I said, internally or externally, we have some good candidates,” Crane said. “I just want to get a feel for what other managers are doing and their skillsets and go through their resumes.”
At the same time, Crane is fielding calls about his general manager vacancy. Candidates
for that position will also come to Houston next week, Crane said, though there is less urgency to make an immediate hire.
“Because that department is so deep — and I’ve interviewed all those guys and they’re pretty coordinated in key positions — I think I can keep an eye on that until we get to the next one,” Crane said.