Pirates Add Former Houston Astros Executive to Front Office

A former executive with the Houston Astros who was dismissed earlier this offseason has now been hired in a front office role with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

In general manager Dana Brown's first full offseason in charge, he's made many changes to the Houston Astros' front office with promotions, dismissals and overall restructuring.

That's to be expected.

As the person in charge, it's best they set things up to fit what they're looking for to ensure the highest levels of success.

One executive that Brown moved on from earlier in the offseason was Sarah Gelles, who has been the Astros' director of research and development for just under five years.

According to Eno Sarris and Britt Ghiroli of The Athletic, it didn't take her long to find a new job as sources are telling them the Pittsburgh Pirates are hiring the former Houston executive to become their assistant general manager.

Gelles actually was an intern with the Pirates back in 2009 on the baseball operations side. She then moved to an intern role with the Baltimore Orioles in 2011 before joining their front office.

That's where her upward trajectory began as she became the coordinator of baseball analytics from 2012-14 before her promotion to director of baseball analytics, a role she held from 2014-16.

Again, Gelles climbed the ladder within the Orioles' front office after she was promoted to director of analytics and Major League contracts.

The rising executive left Baltimore to take the role of program manager of research and development with the Astros in November of 2018. After one year with that title, she was promoted to her most recent role, director of research and development.

Sarris and Ghiroli had Gelles as No. 1 on their list of potential future stars in management and coaching.

Pittsburgh has yet to confirm the report that they have hired Gelles to become an assistant general manager within their front office, but it looks like the former Houston executive has found a new home in Major League Baseball.