Astros To Retain Dana Brown, Joe Espada

Coming off their first non-playoff season since 2016, the Astros will hold off on any major organizational overhauls.  MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart reports that both general manager Dana Brown and manager Joe Espada will be back with the club in 2026, for Brown’s fourth season and Espada’s third season in their respective roles.

The news isn’t hugely surprising, as Brown said during the Astros’ end-of-season press conference last week that Espada would return, and the GM believed he would also remain in his position.  There has been no indication that team owner Jim Crane is dissatisfied with the job performance of either man, whereas by comparison, there were rumors for months in 2022 that Crane was clashing with ex-GM James Click (Brown’s predecessor).  Sure enough, the Astros parted ways with Click shortly after the 2022 season, despite the fact that Houston had just won the World Series.

Since winning that championship, the Astros’ win totals and finishes have gradually gone in reverse.  Houston won 90 games and the AL West in 2023 but fell just short of another pennant, losing to the Rangers in a seven-game ALCS.  In 2024, the Astros won 89 games and another division crown, but their streak of ALCS appearances was snapped when they were upset and swept by the Tigers in the wild card series.

This season saw the Astros win 87 games, the most of any club that didn’t reach the postseason.  The Tigers were again their nemesis, also winning 87 games and edging out the Astros for the final AL wild card berth due to the tiebreaker advantage (Detroit had a 4-2 record against Houston this year).  Even with the Tigers in full collapse mode for much of September, the Astros came undone in the final stretch, going 3-6 in their last nine games.

In this sense, Brown and Espada are somewhat victims of their own success — naturally, most teams would love to have a three-season run that included two division titles and 265 wins.  For this season in particular, there was also a clear reason for the Astros’ relative struggles, as Houston was absolutely ravaged by injuries.  Only four Astros players had more than 500 plate appearances, and Framber Valdez (192 IP) and Hunter Brown (185 1/3 IP) were the only hurlers to log more than 86 innings pitched.  Within this context, Espada found himself garnering some buzz as a Manager Of The Year candidate before the bottom finally fell out on his injury-riddled club.

It isn’t hard to imagine that the Astros would’ve made the playoffs if their team had been even reasonably healthy.  However, just counting on fewer injuries in 2026 might not be enough, plus the Astros have a big pair of potential holes to fill if Valdez or productive backup catcher Victor Caratini leave in free agency.

Going forward, Brown and Espada are both under contract through at least the 2026 season, though the specific terms of either man’s contract aren’t publicly known.  If 2026 is the last year of their deals, Crane could explore at least a brief extension just to make sure that neither is a lame duck, or the owner might want to see if the Astros can firmly get things turned around before making a further commitment.