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Astros Links: Rodriguez, Wade, Mills

Ed Wade's tenure as Astros GM lasted four years and a few months, as his dismissal was announced last night.  David Gottfried will serve as interim GM.  New Astros president and CEO George Postolos described the team's criteria for their next GM in a statement last night:

"We are searching for a candidate who has the knowledge, skills and experience to build a winner and a strong commitment to player development in order to sustain success. Our goal is to consistently compete for a championship, and we know the first step towards that goal is to develop one of the top farm systems in baseball. We will hire the best candidate available to achieve our goal."

That's a pretty standard-issue statement.  Here are today's Astros links...

• The Astros don’t expect to hire a new GM before the Winter Meetings begin next Monday, according to MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart.
• There’s a “decent-sized” market for Wandy Rodriguez if the next Astros GM wants to move him, according to ESPN.com’s Buster Olney (on Twitter).
• Wade was informed by owner Jim Crane and Postolos Wednesday morning that he wouldn't return, he told MLB.com's Brian McTaggart.  The Astros will be paying him through 2013.  Wade expressed disappointment he won't be able to see the rebuilding project through to the end.  He added, "We were able to acquire Randy Wolf, LaTroy Hawkins and Jose Valverde and several other players, who, in different economic circumstances, we could have retained and could have been more successful at the big league level.  The last couple of years in the economic environment we were in, we were in position of being mandated to trade iconic players -- Berkman and Oswalt in 2010 and then young All-Stars in Bourn and Pence and [Jeff] Keppinger, who was a solid piece to our club." 
• Wade indicated he wants to find a new job in baseball quickly, saying, "I haven't had a lot of down time and I'm not looking for down time."
• Wade "inched the franchise back toward respectability," in the opinion of Richard Justice of the Houston Chronicle.
• One "really smart executive" estimated that the Astros will take four to seven years to become respectable again, writes ESPN's Buster Olney.
• The Astros will choose their new GM before clarifying the status of manager Brad Mills, hears SI's Jon Heyman (Twitter link).  Mills is not a candidate to return to Boston as their next manager, tweets Michael Silverman of the Boston Herald.

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