Jim Crane clearly wanted an organization reset in Houston.
The Astros are not renewing manager Joe Espada’s expiring contract, the team announced Wednesday, moving on from the third-year skipper months after dumping general manager Dana Brown.
Houston also announced that five additional coaches will also not be returning for 2027, while bench coach Omar Lopez has been offered a new role within the organization.
“We are thankful for Joe’s hard work, his passion for the game, and for his commitment to the Houston Astros,” Crane, the owner, said in a statement posted to MLB.com. “He represented the Astros and the Houston community in the most positive way. We wish he and his family the best moving forward.”
The Astros are going through a down period following their seven straight ALCS trips from 2017-23 that resulted in two World Series, having failed to win a playoff series during Espada’s three years.
After serving as the team’s bench coach from 2018-23, the former Yankees assistant took over a team that lost in the Game 7 of the 2023 ALCS and oversaw a wild-card sweep in 2024 by the Tigers, a 2025 campaign without a postseason berth and another wild-card sweep this year by the Guardians.
In retrospect, the team tipped its hands when it allowed Espada to interview for the vacant Mariners managerial opening while he was still under contract for the time being.
Espada went 256-229 in the regular season and 0-4 in the postseason as the team’s manager, winning a pair of AL West crowns.
This year’s team won the division with an 81-81 record, the worst record for an MLB playoff team in a 162-game season, and that inconsistency cost Brown his job in late August.
There had been rumors of disputing views on a trade involving reliever Bryan Abreu that Crane ultimately nixed.
After the split, which came during the last year of Brown’s contract, the team said in a release at the time that Crane would oversee baseball operations during the “transition period.”
In its announcement Wednesday, the Astros also stated that five coaches will be retained for 2027, including the pitching and hitting coaches.
While Houston has enjoyed grand success over the last 10 years, consistently allowing premium talent like Gerrit Cole, Alex Bregman and Kyle Tucker, to exit has left the roster exposed.
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