HOUSTON (AP) — When Brad Ausmus came to Houston late last month to interview to be the Astros’ general manager, he left convinced that he wouldn’t get that job.
But he also had a pretty good feeling that he had a shot to be the team’s next manager.
And after a four-hour interview in San Diego with Randy Flores, who owner Jim Crane chose as GM, Ausmus emerged as the man for the job, bringing him back to the city where he starred as a player.
“Looking back on my career, if I picture myself, it’s wearing an Astros uniform,” Ausmus said. “My best memories in the game of baseball are in a Houston Astros uniform, thoroughly enjoyed my time with the people in Houston and with the organization.”
Ausmus was introduced as the 21st manager of the Astros on Friday, taking over the job left vacant when Joe Espada’s contract wasn’t renewed after three seasons.
This is the third different managerial job for the 57-year-old Ausmus, who managed the Angels in 2019 and spent 2014-17 leading the Tigers. He most recently worked as the bench coach for the Yankees from 2024 through last season.
Though he has plenty of warm feelings about the Astros from his time playing catcher here, he wants to leave the past in the past and focus on the future.
“I’m not here to talk about glory days,” he said. “I’m here to talk about the Houston Astros today and the Houston Astros going into 2027, which is now my main focus and certainly the goal is to win the World Series. Making the playoffs, great step, winning the division, great step. But the goal is and should be every single year to win the World Series and that’s why I’m here.”
Though Ausmus didn’t want to revel in the past on Friday, it was hard to ignore the longtime ties he has with this organization which he played for from 1997-98 and 2001-08. Former teammates and Hall of Famers Jeff Bagwell and Craig Biggio sat on the front row next to his wife Liz during his press conference and several questions regarded his history here.
There was also the question of how influential his relationship with Bagwell, an Astros senior advisor, was in his hiring. He answered that query by saying: “It’s probably a better question for Jeff than me, quite frankly.”
Some Astros fans were unhappy with the hiring considering that he hadn’t had much success in his two previous managerial stops. He went 72-90 in his one season with the Angels and was 314-332 in four seasons in Detroit. His best season came in his first with the Tigers when they went 90-72 to win the AL Central before being swept by the Orioles in the AL Division Series.
He had a message for those fans on Friday.
“I say let’s go win,” he said. “For the ones who are doubters, let me bring you back in. We’re going to go out there; we’re going to win. We’re going to do our work in spring training, hopefully get the most out of the players, but my goal is, any doubters, we bring them back in and we make them full-time Astros fans again.”
Former St. Louis Cardinals star Albert Pujols, former Astro Morgan Ensberg and Texas Rangers bench coach Luis Urueta were among other candidates Houston considered before landing on Ausmus.
Flores said he didn’t know Ausmus before this process but that he heard many good things about him from people in his network. And after spending several hours with him, he realized he was the right man for the job.
“Just the connection and the trust that I felt that we’d be in this together,” Flores said. “Look at the modern front offices, there’s two very, very important relationships. One is between the owner and the general manager and then the next one is between the general manager and the manager and I just knew I wanted to do this with him at my side.”
Ausmus said he couldn’t have envisioned this day when he was playing for the Astros, but as the years progressed, he thought he might end up back here.
“I just felt like at some point it would work itself out, karma, fate, whatever that I come back to Houston in some role,” he said. “And I’m very excited that that role is the manager’s role.”
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