The Houston Astros are moving on from general manager James Click just days after winning the World Series. Team owner Jim Crane announced the news Friday after reportedly offering Click just a one-year contract.
Click, formerly an executive with the Tampa Bay Rays, was hired in early 2020 in the aftermath of the sign-stealing scandal, replacing suspended and fired GM Jeff Luhnow. Click maintained the Astros’ era-dominating run of success through the turmoil and suspicion. The team reached the postseason each year, and twice made it to the World Series, emerging victorious this season.
ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports Click, 44, declined a one-year contract offer from Crane, which would have thrust him back into the lame duck status he and manager Dusty Baker worked under in 2022.
“We are grateful for all of James’ contributions,” Crane said in a statement. “We have had great success in each of his three seasons, and James has been an important part of that success. I want to personally thank him and wish him and his family well moving forward.”
Despite Crane’s words, the actions of offering a champion GM a one-year deal say something different: He did not really want Click to run the team.
The break in the Houston front office caps a bizarre progression behind the scenes of baseball’s newly crowned champs. Click and Baker’s uncertain status for 2023 was already raising eyebrows in the middle of the playoffs. The Philadelphia Phillies, for instance, took the interim tag off of manager Rob Thomson and gave him a two-year contract on Oct. 10, in the middle of a successful postseason run. Crane and the Astros went all the way through a 106-win season and World Series run without securing the services of far more proven leaders in Click and Baker.
Baker agreed to return for 2023 earlier this week.
What led to rift between Astros’ Jim Crane, James Click?
October reports hinted at a vague rift between Click and Crane, but the World Series champs not retaining the top baseball executive for the following season is unprecedented in the contemporary, front-office-centric history of the sport. The last top baseball executive to depart a World Series winner before the beginning of the following season was the Yankees‘ Larry MacPhail in 1947 — the product of an incident during the celebration where he drunkenly punched a writer, among other antics.
The closest comparison might be … Dave Dombrowski, the current president of baseball operations for the Phillies team the Astros just beat. Boston Red Sox owner John Henry fired Dombrowski in late 2019, less than a year after winning the 2018 World Series, and quickly hired executive Chaim Bloom to steer the team in a vastly different, cost-conscious direction that included trading Mookie Betts.
It’s less apparent what owner motivations might be behind this change.
Click largely kept the Astros moving in the same direction established by Luhnow. They built a great deal of their team internally, particularly through success in the player development department, and steered clear of major long-term deals. Their key external additions have largely been of the short-term (retaining Justin Verlander) or mid-tier variety, but they kept winning despite the exits of George Springer, Gerrit Cole and, most recently, Carlos Correa. They made an offer to Correa, but ultimately saw him walk away, only to install rookie shortstop Jeremy Peña and watch him win World Series MVP.
Industry speculation relayed by The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal in October focused on Click’s decision to beef up the front office and scouting staff beyond Luhnow’s lean operation. It also mentioned that Crane has leaned more on former players in his circle, including Jeff Bagwell and Reggie Jackson.
Click continued representing the Astros at the GM meetings this…
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