Gary Pettis Won’t Return To Astros’ Staff In 2025
The Astros are parting ways with third base/outfield coach Gary Pettis after 10 seasons, reports USA Today’s Bob Nightengale. Pettis hasn’t technically been fired, but his contract expired at the end of the 2024 season and will not be renewed for the 2025 campaign.
Pettis, 66, played in parts of 11 big league seasons, spending the bulk of his time with the Angels but also appearing in three seasons as a Tiger, two as a Ranger and one as a Padre. He never provided a ton of offense, hitting .236/.332/.310 in more than 4200 MLB plate appearances, but he swiped 354 bags and won five Gold Gloves in center field. Those 354 steals are currently tied with Starling Marte for 106th in big league history.
After wrapping up his playing career, Pettis held coaching gigs with the Halos, White Sox, Mets and Rangers from 1995 through 2014. His decade-long stint with the Astros has been the lengthiest stop of his coaching career by far. He’s worked under three general managers (Jeff Luhnow, James Click, Dana Brown) and three managers as well (A.J. Hinch, Dusty Baker, Joe Espada). If he wants to continue his coaching work, he should have ample interest from other clubs given his background in the area.
Moving on from Pettis is, thus far, the only change to Houston’s coaching staff. The club has not yet formally announced its 2025 staff, so it’s possible there will be more turnover revealed in the weeks ahead. The 2024 season was Espada’s first year as manager after six seasons as the bench coach — first under Hinch and later under Baker. Espada retained Baker’s entire coaching staff after taking the reins in Houston heading into the current season, with first base coach Omar Lopez being promoted to bench coach duties, replacing Espada in that regard. Dave Clark, who’d been managing in the Astros’ minor league ranks, joined the big league staff and took over Lopez’s duties as first base coach.
Astros Finalize Coaching Staff
The Astros announced this evening they’ve finalized their coaching staff for the 2023 campaign. It’ll be Dusty Baker’s fourth season running the show as the Astros look to defend their World Series title.
One previously unreported addition is the tabbing of Tommy Kawamura as game planning coach (h/t to Mark Berman of Fox 26). Formerly a member of the team’s advance scouting department in the front office, Kawamura makes the jump to the dugout. It’s a newly-created position for the Astros that’ll presumably increase Baker’s ability to match up with the opposition.
The rest of the staff returns, most in their previous roles. Joe Espada is back for a sixth season as bench coach. Alex Cintrón and Troy Snitker return as co-hitting coaches; Jason Kanzler will be their assistant hitting coach, his second season on staff. Bill Murphy and Josh Miller will split pitching coach duties for the second straight year. Gary Pettis and Omar López will serve as base coaches, with Dan Firova and Michael Collins also remaining on staff.
There’s a strong amount of continuity with the group, as they return in hopes of backing up their championship. Houston made some key front office changes at the start of the offseason, but the non-playing field staff is back completely intact with the addition of Kawamura.
Astros Notes: Abreu, Bagwell, Coaches
For over a month now, it’s seemed like the White Sox would let Jose Abreu join a new organization and install Andrew Vaughn at first base. That became official this week, when Abreu signed with the Astros. However, the Sox didn’t just completely turn their back on him. “The White Sox made me an offer, it was a really good offer, but we’ll leave it at there,” Abreu said in his introductory press conference, per Chandler Rome of The Houston Chronicle.
Without any details, it’s hard to say exactly how hard the White Sox tried to retain Abreu, but it wasn’t enough either way. Abreu’s interest seems to have been quite wide, as it’s already been reported the Guardians made a three-year offer and he was also a top target of the Red Sox. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports that the Padres also made a three-year offer while Craig Mish of the Miami Herald reports that the Marlins were at the table as well. Regardless, what’s done is done and Abreu is an Astro now.
One person who was involved in the deal coming together was former Astro Jeff Bagwell, as Crane said he and assistant general manager Bill Firkus flew to flew to Miami to negotiate the deal with Abreu, per Rome. It was recently reported amid the departure of general manager James Click that Bagwell has been working with the front office in some capacity, sitting in on meetings and things of that nature. Bagwell is apparently one of Crane’s most trusted advisors and it seems his level of engagement has increased in Click’s absence. However, it doesn’t appear as though it will go much farther, as he insisted to members of the media that he does not want the open general manager position and wouldn’t interview for it if asked, per Rome.
In other Astros news, Mark Berman of Fox 26 reports that Gary Pettis will return as the third base coach, with pitching coach Bill Murphy returning for 2023 as well. Pettis has been in that role since 2015 while Murphy just got his job title a year ago when Brent Strom parted ways with the club.