Brad Ausmus Takes Over the Astros as the Mariners Rivalry Enters a New Era

The Mariners beat the Astros 10 times in 13 games last season. Houston went on to win the AL West anyway. If we want to know what has to change in this rivalry now that Brad Ausmus and Jason Kanzler are managing the clubhouse, we can start right there. The Mariners spent all summer getting the better of Houston and still watched them play postseason games.

Ausmus takes over a team that went 81-81 and got swept by the White Sox in the Wild Card round. Seven straight trips to the ALCS used to be the standard in Houston. Now the Astros have a new manager and a new general manager in Randy Flores, and their most recent division title says about as much about the rest of the West as it does about them.

Why Houston Kept Coming Back to Brad Ausmus

Ausmus was the catcher on the first Astros team to reach the World Series in 2005. He spent 10 of his 18 big league seasons in Houston, then went to work in San Diego’s front office after retiring. He’s since managed two big league clubs and worked as a bench coach for Mark Kotsay in Oakland and Aaron Boone in New York. He’s spent a lot of time seeing, and being a part of how decisions get made from many angles of the clubhouse. For a first-time GM who has to keep an aging team competitive, there’s an obvious appeal in hiring somebody who already knows what those conversations sound like.

The strongest line on his managerial résumé is Detroit’s 2014 AL Central title. The Tigers had won the division three straight times before he arrived, and they won it again in his first year. They also won 86 games under him in 2016 and still missed the playoffs. A year later, they lost 98 games. His only season managing the Angels ended at 72-90. The Detroit title tells us he’s been able to manage a veteran contender through a pennant race. The rest gives us good reason to watch what kind of roster Flores gives him to start his tenure in Houston.

Apparently, Houston had been circling Ausmus for years. The Astros interviewed him for the manager’s job that went to Dusty Baker and for the GM opening that went to Dana Brown. They spoke with him about the GM job again this fall before hiring Flores. Ausmus also played alongside Jeff Bagwell, who remains a trusted adviser to owner Jim Crane.

Flores said at his introduction that he wanted a manager he could trust and communicate with under pressure. Among Houston’s publicly identified candidates, Ausmus was the only one who’d managed in the majors. The way we read it, the Astros went with a familiar person who’d already done the job and could help a new GM get to work quickly.

The Astros also kept pitching coach Josh Miller and hitting coach Victor Rodríguez, so some of the people who know the players best will still be there when Ausmus walks in. We’ll see a new manager across the field in April (lockout depending) and plenty of the same matchups that make a Houston series such a pain.

Jeremy Peña is the name we should follow this winter. MLB.com identified his future as an immediate question for Flores, and he’s one of several Astros on track to reach free agency after 2027 or 2028. How Flores handles Peña and what he adds around Yordan Alvarez and Hunter Brown will tell us how aggressively Houston intends to defend the division.

Jason Kanzler Has a Different Problem to Solve in Seattle

The twist is how close we came to seeing Joe Espada in the home dugout at T-Mobile Park. Houston let his contract expire, and Seattle brought him in for a final interview alongside Kanzler. The Mariners chose a first-time manager who’d already worked on Houston’s big league coaching staff. Kanzler even had a little fun at his introduction, calling the Astros “the team that shall not be named.” He knows exactly which series we’ll circle.

The first one is scheduled for April 16–18 in Seattle. By then, we should be able to see what both front offices did with the winter.

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