I usually wait at least a night to comment on big things like this. Immediate departures bring reckless statements one way or another. Ultimately, there are three competing narratives when it comes to hiring Randy Flores as general manager and all three narratives have kernels of truth in them. Thus, all who are righteous, all may sin equally. Essentially we have a glass half full approach, a glass half empty, and a ground approach half. We will look at each detail.
The glass is half full
If one looks at the Astros’ offense organization in recent times, one can look no further than the disintegration of the minor league system. It is clear that there are many reasons for singing into it. Every major league company has lost much of the 2020 draft because of COVID. Then they took the Astros first in the league, and were shot second in two seasons for a sign stealing offense. Next, you have to use the techniques of luck to keep the sponsorship window open.
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So, saying that the Astros farm system is terrible is not a perfect indictment of Dana Brown or James Click before him. But Flores is primarily concerned with the player development stage. Baseball America has ranked the Cardinals as the number two overall farm system in the MLB in 2026. They were putting them towards the middle of the pack for much of the previous decade, where they were placing as low as 20th and as high as ninth. The Astros were never ranked better than 24 in the same season.
The Cardinals ranked fourth in Fangraphs last season. So many sources thought the Cardinals were among the best systems in baseball. Flores officially began his career in 2015, but he had already achieved innovation marks before joining the Cardinals. That seems to honor the recently introduced Driveline Astros executives. It is impossible to know if there will be any movement at the moment, but at least Flores has been sought after by other clubs. He went to Baltimore and was also named the first candidate in Anaheim. This is the opposite of Dana Brown, who didn’t look anywhere else but Houston before he was hired.
I hate to make this comparison because it’s unfair to Brown, but the hiring felt similar to the Houston Texans hiring David Culley. Again, this is not to say that Brown was as big a joker as Culley clearly was, but to repeat with the likes. The advisors were that no one was considered to be a head coach or general manager. At least a guy thinks other people should have flowers for his head office. Yes, that would make the Astros version of DeMeco Ryans.
The glass is half empty
This ends up being a public relations mess for Jim Crane and the Houston Astros. Most of the last week, assistant general manager Matt Kleine has been employed. Kleine has been one of the key representatives in Milwaukee and has been reported as the Astros number one candidate for the entire week or so. Of course, this is when a solid report starts to feel a little like the people who are at the rumor mill, hinting and adding two and two to seventeen.
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What we do know for a fact is that Kleine recently signed a four-year contract extension with Brewer. So that extension is completely signed and we don’t know the exact terms of the extension. We know that getting it requires a purchase. Hence the method of observation must be repeated. There were rumors that Klein wanted more money. Other reports were that he wanted the title of President of Baseball Operations. There are still relationships that want more autonomy. All these things could be true, and none of them could be true. I guess there is some core truth to everything, but we don’t know the details. So we don’t know exactly what agreements will be made by him.
We also don’t know how the Astros committed because Kleine was their number one pick. This will be a key area for them to clear in the press conference under the introduction on Monday at 10 AM. Cranes will need to sell media and ghosts in Flowers of their choice. I guess it’s going to be a job to sell. I’m not sure there’s any satisfactory way to explain the fantasy that awaits the event that you can’t get your guy. That is to sell flowers and sell it hard.
As someone who plugs in as much as possible, I’m not sure if the analytical details that Florus brings to the job. It’s easy for him to sell himself on the results of the Cardinals’ strong skill system, but how does that translate to the rest of the baseball operation? Kleine seemed a little involved in the Milwaukee operations the other day, but the perception could be shocking. Of course, only time will tell.
About the Based Narrative
This is possible because we call the marriage between the glass half empty and the glass half full approach. I start by asking a couple of management questions. Is the organization in better hands today than before the decision was made? In other words, is Randy Flores a better target than Dana Brown? Of course, I can’t say for sure, but it would also be a reasonable answer. Part of that calculation should be all the Astros’ recent hires around Flowers to help with the player development and analytics side of things.
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Most people agree that we all think we’d be better off if the general manager made those decisions in staffings, but the Astros don’t do it that way for whatever reason. At least, Flores is intimately involved in picking the mayor. So, when it comes to projection, we’d say that the Flores/future manager combination of Dana Brown/Joe Espada would be a superior combination. Which, of course, in the last two weeks has included the organization of all the mercenaries.
The second governing question is whether something fundamentally changes in the affairs that run under Floro. I don’t know at this point, no one does. that is the matter. We don’t know if Crane will trust Flowers more and give him more power to make decisions. Maybe Flores as a former player gives him a second share of the vision he can buy into Crane. Perhaps Crane will never again have the executive trust to have more autonomy. We just don’t know.
If I had to guess, I guess I have more influence than Brown in 2026. I think Crane knew he was being moved by Brown and just didn’t want to pull the trigger. In that scenario, you won’t be able to allow the lame duck much power to do anything. Of course, that raises all kinds of questions about why you don’t believe in allowing someone to continue doing the work, but we can ask these questions now. The point is that Flores has a closer influence than Brown did at the end of his tenure. how much more we are in no power of knowing.
This question will be important as there are tons of decisions that can be made. Some of these decisions involve the potential to remove valuable assets. Will he give power to do it? Will Crane and Jeff Bagwell have to clear each account? Crane and the extra refuse to refuse to consider the option in the beginning? In fact, we don’t have answers to any questions yet. Until we understand that it is really impossible to give a full answer about this reward.