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Astros Finalize Coaching Staff

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The Astros announced this evening they’ve finalized their coaching staff for the 2023 campaign. It’ll be Dusty Baker’s fourth season running the show as the Astros look to defend their World Series title.

One previously unreported addition is the tabbing of Tommy Kawamura as game planning coach (h/t to Mark Berman of Fox 26). Formerly a member of the team’s advance scouting department in the front office, Kawamura makes the jump to the dugout. It’s a newly-created position for the Astros that’ll presumably increase Baker’s ability to match up with the opposition.

The rest of the staff returns, most in their previous roles. Joe Espada is back for a sixth season as bench coach. Alex Cintrón and Troy Snitker return as co-hitting coaches; Jason Kanzler will be their assistant hitting coach, his second season on staff. Bill Murphy and Josh Miller will split pitching coach duties for the second straight year. Gary Pettis and Omar López will serve as base coaches, with Dan Firova and Michael Collins also remaining on staff.

There’s a strong amount of continuity with the group, as they return in hopes of backing up their championship. Houston made some key front office changes at the start of the offseason, but the non-playing field staff is back completely intact with the addition of Kawamura.

Astros Notes: Abreu, Bagwell, Coaches

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For over a month now, it’s seemed like the White Sox would let Jose Abreu join a new organization and install Andrew Vaughn at first base. That became official this week, when Abreu signed with the Astros. However, the Sox didn’t just completely turn their back on him. “The White Sox made me an offer, it was a really good offer, but we’ll leave it at there,” Abreu said in his introductory press conference, per Chandler Rome of The Houston Chronicle.

Without any details, it’s hard to say exactly how hard the White Sox tried to retain Abreu, but it wasn’t enough either way. Abreu’s interest seems to have been quite wide, as it’s already been reported the Guardians made a three-year offer and he was also a top target of the Red Sox. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports that the Padres also made a three-year offer while Craig Mish of the Miami Herald reports that the Marlins were at the table as well. Regardless, what’s done is done and Abreu is an Astro now.

One person who was involved in the deal coming together was former Astro Jeff Bagwell, as Crane said he and assistant general manager Bill Firkus flew to flew to Miami to negotiate the deal with Abreu, per Rome. It was recently reported amid the departure of general manager James Click that Bagwell has been working with the front office in some capacity, sitting in on meetings and things of that nature. Bagwell is apparently one of Crane’s most trusted advisors and it seems his level of engagement has increased in Click’s absence. However, it doesn’t appear as though it will go much farther, as he insisted to members of the media that he does not want the open general manager position and wouldn’t interview for it if asked, per Rome.

In other Astros news, Mark Berman of Fox 26 reports that Gary Pettis will return as the third base coach, with pitching coach Bill Murphy returning for 2023 as well. Pettis has been in that role since 2015 while Murphy just got his job title a year ago when Brent Strom parted ways with the club.

Astros Sign Hitting Coach Alex Cintron To Multi-Year Extension

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The Astros have taken some steps towards preserving continuity on the coaching staff. Co-hitting coaches Alex Cintrón and Troy Snitker are returning in the same roles, they informed reporters (including Mark Berman of Fox 26 and Brian McTaggart of MLB.com). Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle reports that Cintrón signed an extension that keeps him under contract through 2025.

The multi-year deal for Cintrón could be tied to some interest from a competitor. Rome writes the 43-year-old interviewed with the Blue Jays in their search for a bench coach to work alongside skipper John Schneider. His new deal with Houston forecloses the possibility of him heading north of the border. The Cintrón/Snitker pairing has worked together since the start of the 2019 season, guiding an extremely talented lineup to excellent results. Houston trails only the Dodgers in runs scored over the last four years. They were eighth in runs this past season, and they placed seventh in on-base percentage (.319) and fifth in slugging (.424).

Rome also reports the Astros have agreed to a new deal with pitching coach Josh Miller. He’ll be back for a second season. Miller was promoted to co-pitching coach alongside Bill Murphy after the departure of Brent Strom last offseason. The duo inherited an excellent pitching infrastructure and plenty of talent, but they also seem to have taken on their greater responsibilities very well. Only the Dodgers allowed fewer runs this year, while the Mets were the sole team to beat Astros pitchers’ 26% strikeout rate. The contract status of Murphy hasn’t yet been reported.

Other than Murphy, most of the key members of the coaching staff are slated to return on the heels of the World Series win. Dusty Baker will get a fourth season at the helm, and he’ll be joined by his co-hitting coaches and at least one of this past season’s pitching coaches. Bench coach Joe Espada and first base Omar López were previously reported to be back themselves.

Astros Announce Coaching Staff

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The Astros announced the addition of minor league hitting coordinator Jason Kanzler to the big league staff in an unspecified coaching role. The 31-year-old, who spent three seasons in the Twins system as a player, has spent the past three years coaching Astros minor leaguers.

Otherwise, the bulk of Dusty Baker’s staff remains the same. Houston announced the returns of bench coach Joe Espada, hitting coaches Alex Cintrón and Troy Snitker, base coaches Omar Lopez and Gary Pettis, and quality assurance coach Dan Firova in the same positions. Espada, who has spent the past four seasons on the Astros coaching staff, interviewed with the Mets and A’s for their managerial vacancies this offseason but will return to Houston after those respective jobs went to Buck Showalter and Mark Kotsay.

It seems the role of pitching coach will be filled jointly by Josh Miller and Bill Murphy, last season’s bullpen coach and assistant pitching coach, respectively. Longtime Houston pitching coach Brent Strom stepped down at the end of the season, eventually taking on the same role with the Diamondbacks. At the time, Strom suggested the club should turn to Miller and Murphy as his replacements, and that’s the course of action the team will take. It’s theoretically possible Houston adds some additional help for the pitching staff — the team’s announcement didn’t explicitly state that the staff had been finalized — but it seems more likely Miller and Murphy will just take on the responsibilities Strom left behind.

In addition to the tinkering on the coaching staff, Houston announced a few front office hires. The Astros confirmed the previously-reported hiring of Sara Goodrum as director of player development. They also hired a pair of new assistant general managers. Former Angels director of baseball operations Andrew Ball — who had once worked alongside Astros general manager James Click in the Rays front office — and former Dodgers director of quantitative analysis Scott Powers will both join Pete Putila as AGM’s in Houston. The club also announced a handful of promotions within the scouting and player development departments.

Astros’ Pitching Coach Brent Strom Won’t Return In 2022

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In the champagne-colored haze that followed the World Series, the top story was the championship team in Atlanta, of course. But there was also some news from the opposing side, as Brent Strom held a post-game scrum and announced that he will not be returning as the Astros’ pitching coach next season. (Links from Brian McTaggart of MLB.com, Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle and Mark Berman of Fox 26.) A few weeks ago, Strom had hinted that he was considering this path, before making it official after last night’s game.

The 73-year-old isn’t committed to a full-on retirement necessarily, but seems confident about the role he won’t have. “There may be another opportunity for me somewhere else. I may look at that. I may just go lie on a beach in Mexico,” Strom said. “But I need to enjoy my life a little bit. I haven’t had a summer in a long time. So we’ll see. I haven’t made a final decision yet, but I know I won’t be back as the Major League pitching coach here. Yeah. I know that for a fact.”

Strom made 100 appearances over five seasons in his playing career, from 1972 to 1977. He logged 501 innings with an ERA of 3.95 over his time with three different clubs. Since then, he’s been coaching in different roles for various organizations, including the Royals, Nationals and Cardinals. But his most consistent stretch at the big league level has been his most recent tenure with the Astros, running from 2014 through 2021, which coincided with their emergence from a lengthy rebuild into a consistent powerhouse club, including the now-infamous championship club from 2017.

Strom’s departure opens up an important position in the dugout, and he seemed to imply that the torch will be passed to someone already within the organization, listing bullpen coach Josh Miller and assistant pitching coach Bill Murphy as options. “I really think this organization’s in a really good position with these two young pitching coaches that we have, and I’m sure had I stayed there would be teams coming after these two guys,” he said. “I think this organization deserves these two young guys, Murphy and Miller, to stay. How they work that out is up to them.” Miller has been with the organization since 2011, working in various roles over the past decade, but has been the bullpen coach for the past three seasons. Murphy signed on to work with the Astros’ minor leaguers prior to the 2017 season and then worked his way up to the big league team for the 2021 campaign.

It’s unclear if the Astros’ front office perceives the transition as smoothly as Strom does, but he made it clear that Miller and Murphy already deserve much of the credit for the current Houston pitching staff. “If you look at all these pitchers that we have right now, most of them came up through those two guys. Outside of Lance [McCullers Jr.] that I had as a holdover, all my guys have kind of moved on.” With that framing in mind, it seems like Strom has already been gradually relinquishing some duties to Murphy and Miller. But it remains to be seen how the organization will divvy up the job titles and responsibilities for next season, or if they plan to consider external hires.

Elsewhere on Houston’s coaching staff, there will also be a vacancy in the manager’s seat with Dusty Baker’s contract now expiring, although it’s possible that matter will be settled in short order. Bob Nightengale of USA Today tweets that Astros’ owner Jim Crane “plans to sit down with Dusty Baker in the next few days to iron out a one- or 2-year contract.” The return of Baker would not come as a huge surprise, given how his time in Houston has gone so far. The club was mired in the aftermath of the scandalous sign-stealing revelations when Crane personally hired Baker as the new skipper, and he has guided the club through a pair of successful campaigns, making it to the ALCS in 2020 and the World Series in 2021. Crane discussed the matter about a month ago and didn’t say anything definitive, but spoke positively of Baker. Dusty himself seemed to indicate that he wanted to return, when discussing things a few weeks ago, making it seem like there’s enough mutual interest for an extension to potentially come together fairly quickly.

Blue Jays Claim Hoffpauir From Cardinals

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The Toronto Blue Jays claimed infielder Jarrett Hoffpauir off of waivers from the St. Louis Cardinals. Left-handed pitcher Bill Murphy was designated for assignment to make room on the 40-man roster for Hoffpauir.

Hoffpauir, 26, is an intriguing pickup. He posted a .291/.357/.486 batting line in 402 plate appearances for Triple-A Memphis, and also held his own in 16 plate appearances with St. Louis. In other words, he's right around the same part of his career Marco Scutaro was when Oakland gave him a chance to play every day.

One wonders if this is a sign that Toronto doesn't plan to bring Scutaro back. For what it's worth, Hoffpauir has played 10 games at shortstop in the minor leagues, while Aaron Hill, Toronto's second baseman, came through the minor leagues as a shortstop.

Murphy, 28, had posted a 7.59 ERA in Triple-A, so this move can't be considered much of a surprise.

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