With less than one week remaining in the MLB regular season, three teams have yet to appoint a permanent head of baseball operations. Whether the Angels, Athletics, or Astros appoint a president of baseball operations or general manager, the three American League West teams at least got a head start by firing Perry Minasian, David Forst, and Dana Brown (respectively) in the middle of the season. Other teams could make similar decisions about their baseball operations executives during their internal year-end meetings.
At least the executive whose team wins the World Series is safe — usually. That wasn't exactly the case in Houston after the Astros and James Click parted ways in November 2022 — days after Click rejected a one-year contract extension, and less than a month after the Astros won the championship. Now as then, the Astros' next GM or POBO might be subject to circumstances out of their control in a way his counterparts with the A's and Angels are not.
"Why would you want to go to Houston and have all of your decisions get undercut by [senior adviser] Jeff Bagwell? It might be the worst job of the ones available," one National League executive told Yahoo! More news: Astros Bring 77-Year-Old Coach Out of Retirement After Firing GM The Astros retired Bagwell's No. 5 in 2007.
In 2017, he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. He's held a senior advisor role in the organization since 2023. Not all front-office advisors have executive decision-making privileges, but the Astros are apparently the exception to the rule in that regard.
Click's analytical approach to the job specifically rubbed Bagwell the wrong way, which might have directly led to his departure. More news: One MLB Stadium is About to be Renamed After 26 Years Brown helped build the Braves' 2021 championship roster. He first began as a scout in 1994.
If Bagwell's influence is as large as the anonymous executive suggests, the Astros' next GM might have a background in scouting as well. He or she might also have to report to Bagwell. For more MLB news, visit Newsweek Sports
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