Dana Brown Is Gone, but Astros’ Biggest Roster Problem Is Still Here
· Yahoo Sports
Dana Brown is no longer the general manager of the Houston Astros, and as we begin dissecting what he did and didn’t do, during his tenure, one glaring failure stands above the rest.
The Astros started this season with a major problem in the outfield.
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Now, with less than a month remaining in the regular season, they still have the exact same problem.
That’s difficult to comprehend.
There will be plenty of debate over how much authority Brown actually had during his time in Houston. Was Jim Crane heavily involved in personnel decisions? How much influence did Jeff Bagwell and others within Crane’s inner circle have? Was Brown empowered to construct the roster the way he wanted, or was he operating with one hand tied behind his back?
Those are legitimate questions.
But regardless of who deserves what percentage of the blame, the final product speaks for itself.
The Astros needed outfield help before the season started. They needed it during the first half. They needed it approaching the trade deadline. They needed it after the deadline.
And they still need it today.
At some point, somebody has to be held accountable for failing to solve such an obvious problem.
The Astros had months to find a legitimate corner outfielder capable of providing consistent major league production. Instead, we’ve watched a revolving door of players come through Houston as the organization repeatedly hoped it could resurrect someone’s career or somehow catch lightning in a bottle.
It hasn’t worked.
Jorge Barrosa is simply the latest player to get his opportunity and try to provide the production Houston has been searching for all season.
Before him came Nelson Velázquez, whose struggles have been especially noticeable defensively and who hasn’t provided enough offense to compensate for those shortcomings.
Taylor Trammell and LaMonte Wade Jr. have had their moments.
But that’s the problem.
They’ve been moments.
There haven’t been enough of them to justify believing these are everyday outfielders for a team with legitimate postseason aspirations.
For an organization that spent most of the last decade setting the standard for roster construction in Major League Baseball, it’s borderline embarrassing.
How many reclamation projects can one contender run onto the field before admitting the plan hasn’t worked?
This isn’t about expecting an All-Star at every position. Championship teams always have role players, inexpensive contributors and veterans trying to recapture previous success.
But there is a difference between supplementing your roster with those players and depending on them.
The Astros have spent an entire season depending on them.
And somehow, Joe Espada has continued to find ways to win.
That’s another element of this discussion that shouldn’t be ignored as Crane evaluates Espada’s future after the season.
If we’re going to criticize the manager when things go wrong, then we also have to acknowledge what he’s accomplished with the roster he was given.
Espada has kept this team in contention despite dealing with injuries, inconsistent pitching and one of the least productive offensive outfields in baseball.
He’s had to mix and match lineups constantly, searching for combinations that could provide enough offense to survive.
At times, that has even meant putting Yordan Alvarez in left field more frequently than anyone would probably prefer simply because the Astros desperately needed to find another way to construct a productive lineup.
Think about that.
Your American League MVP candidate has been asked to spend additional time in the outfield partly because the organization couldn’t adequately solve a roster problem that was obvious before Opening Day.
That’s not on Joe Espada.
That’s roster construction.
And that’s why, as the Astros evaluate everything following Brown’s departure, the organization needs to look beyond one person.
If Brown didn’t have complete control over baseball decisions, then Crane has to evaluate the entire process that produced this roster.
Who identified these players?
Who decided they were good enough?
Who chose not to pursue better alternatives?
Who believed the Astros could get through an entire season patching together the outfield with waiver claims, reclamation projects and players other organizations were willing to move on from?
Those questions matter because simply changing the general manager accomplishes very little if the decision-making structure surrounding him remains exactly the same.
Now the Astros enter one of the most important weeks of their season.
Their playoff fate could very well be determined by what happens over the coming days, and once again we’ll look toward the outfield and wonder whether anybody besides Yordan Alvarez can provide consistent offensive production.
Maybe Barrosa provides a spark.
Maybe one of the other options suddenly gets hot.
Maybe Houston finds another unlikely hero just when it needs one most.
But after an entire season of waiting for that to happen, “maybe” shouldn’t have been the plan.
Dana Brown is gone.
The Astros’ outfield problem isn’t.
And until Houston figures out why such an obvious weakness was allowed to remain unresolved for an entire season, changing the name on the general manager’s office won’t necessarily fix the bigger problem.
As the Astros begin this critical week, keep an eye on the outfield.
It may ultimately determine whether this remarkable comeback season ends in October—or ends wondering what might have been if the organization had simply fixed the problem everyone could see from the very beginning. What do you think Astros fans, let me know in the comments below.