The Astros moved some pieces around in their front office recently, per Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle. With an eye towards succession, Astros owner Jim Crane has moved his son Jared Crane into a position to oversee the club’s business operations.
Longtime team president Reid Ryan has been moved out of the role and into a different position within the organization as Executive Advisor of Business Relations. The organization says Ryan will remain “an important part of the Astros organization,” though they’ve also said that he will have more time to explore other opportunities. All in all, the shift from Ryan to Crane seems a significant change for both parties.
Ryan, of course, is the son of Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan. The elder Ryan has been an advisor to the team for the past six seasons, but his role has expired and he is not expected to continue on with the team.
This all comes on the heels of an unfortunate situation surrounding former assistant GM Brandon Taubman, but the team insists this shakeup has nothing to do with the handling of Taubman’s situation. Instead, the move is part of a long-term plan by owner and chairman Jim Crane to move his son into an increased role with the team.
Executive team what?
how nice! why did my father always insisted my separation from his vast wealth?
It was probably due to your poor command of the English language.
Great rip. Always hammer inferior posters.
Ouch!
It’s good to see that Jared Crane was able to overcome all of the obstacles in his way in order to prove that he is the most qualified person for this job.
A modern day Horatio Alger story.
The glass floor catches another!
In privately-owned companies and other places like the WH, it seems that nepotism is the unfortunate norm.
Zing! Good one paddy…
I’m assuming this is tongue in cheek, so I up-rated it. Apparently you can accurately predict a person’s future level of success by certain qualities in kindergarten: IQ, home background, social awareness and persistence. Pretty much none of which anyone earns, good or bad. All you have to do is wake up and be yourself each day, the one you were destined to be as a kindergartner. Jared was probably predictable the day he was born and given his silver spoon.
Well the Astros might as well start looking for new homes for their AA and AAA teams. It’s pretty sad that Nolan is now at odds with the Astros and Rangers.
Time for Ryan to come home to the Angels…He’s a crusty old man, but just speaking with the pitchers every Spring would leave them inspired and star-struck.
Ryan is not still at odds with the Rangers. He threw the first pitch in the finale at old Globe Life last season and is having his steak line sold at the new park. AAA and AA leases do not come up annually either.
except for the Astros bought the AA team from Ryan Sanders baseball a few years ago…
Life is a modified meritocracy. Recognize, adjust and move on.
Meritocracy? Hardly. Nepotism is the exact opposite of a meritocracy, though I have no qualms with it.
Why wouldn’t you have qualms with it? I worked in a company riddled with nepotism and even though I was somewhat shielded as an executive it was pretty awful the way decisions were made and people were treated. I only stayed fifteen months.
I guess I can see it in a very small, private company, but in a larger one or a public company it’s difficult to tolerate.
Succession of progeny is one of the prime directives in nature. No owner of a privately owned company willfully passes over children/family to “others”. Would you? Now if the kid is a dirtbag, perhaps not, but you get my meaning.
In a small, private company I would not “pass over” my kid, assuming s/he had the talent and right attitude. In a larger company it would be all about merit. I would not risk the income of 100’s of employees on someone just because they’re my kid.
Uh huh.
MODIFIED meritoracy.
You don’t fire Superman, Batman or Nolan Ryan……..
Nolan Ryan was not fired. He quit.
“Promote”
In the book The Iowa Baseball Confederacy, the father is killed by a line drive and the son receives all of his baseball knowledge when he passes. Could be the same theory here
At least he spells Jared the correct way.
Steinbrenner 3.0!
Well, he is going to be the owner one day. Why couldn’t they just promote Jared to “VP of assistant
ownership?” Of course the recent brouhaha had nothing to do with pushing Reid Ryan out of the way!
Assistant TO the Regional Manager.
America in a nutshell smh
The beginning of the Spanos-equivalent in MLB. Years of mediocrity in spite of the talent to follow.
I’m interested to know the name of the job Jared Crane is assuming the role of, but we all know it’s Assistant to the Regional Manager.
I think it’s funny that people have a problem with this. If Crane plans on passing the team down to his son, I would prefer his son have some experience within the organization first. It’s Crane’s organization, that he paid a ton of money for, why shouldn’t he be able to hire his son if he wants to prepare him to take over one day?
Maybe because lots of people depend on the organization for their income, and an entire fandom of loyal people invest in it for their loyal enjoyment. I would never hand over a company with this market value to someone just because they’re my son. Never. That would have to be about merit. Anything else is just bad faith to everyone else involved with the company.
This is not some mom and pop.
In fairness, you don’t really know that he is NOT a qualified candidate for the job. Assuming someone got his job based only on nepotism is almost as bad as nepotism itself. Everyone deserves a chance to prove their worth.
Now you may not make your kid GM, and that I get, but team ownership is not about merit. It’s about being wealthy or having a wealthy family.
The Astros front office is exploring every avenue of toxicity lol.
Gin and tonics for all
Nice. I bet Crane Jr. will get paid $50,000 per month for his vast experience and business acumen in this advisory role.
Sad star of affairs
Cole is gone as well. The Astros will low ball him and say they tried just like Morton last year.
I believe Morton took less at TB because he wanted to play at home.