Astros general manager Dana Brown is the antithesis of his predecessors
Dana Brown's long wait for a GM job finally ended when the Astros hired the now 56-year-old shortly before the start of spring training.WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A month and a day after it started, Dana Brown understood his new reality. His best hitter still had not swung a bat, his most experienced starting pitcher strained a muscle in his elbow, and everyone wanted to know what was next. Brown spent the past 20 years offering suggestions. Now he’s supposed to have all the answers.
“We drafted him because we thought he was a big leaguer,” Brown said, “and he ends up playing in the big leagues.” Neither Luhnow nor Click played a professional game. Both got Ivy League degrees and built their baseball careers around data-driven, analytical decisions. Dismissing or discounting their accomplishments is lunacy, but Crane decided to change directions. An Astros spokesman did not answer a request to interview Crane for this story, but the owner's goals in hiring Brown are apparent.
Brown is blunt: He sought a general manager’s job for more than a decade. Rejection became a common refrain. He interviewed to run the New York Mets in 2010. Five years later, the Seattle Mariners called, and Brown “really felt like I had a shot.” Jerry Dipoto got the job instead. Commissioner Rob Manfred encouraged Brown afterward, asking him to “stay positive.”
“I was saying to myself, ‘If the Astros want me, I think Biggio would probably let me know or give me a little bit of a heads-up,’ ” Brown said. “When I didn't hear from him. I didn't even think about the Astros job. I was more concerned about Detroit.”Brown’s arrival came amid unprecedented circumstances. Not since Larry MacPhail was let go by the Yankees in 1947 had a general manager lost his job in the offseason after winning a World Series.
“I had no idea what transpired. Sometimes when things happen, you don't know what's going on, and you don't have the inside information. So I wasn't even trying to guess. I just said, ‘Whatever happened, it didn't go well. The GM job is open.’ ” “I think he likes to be looped in as to your thought process, as opposed to him vetoing a decision that you're making. If it makes sense. I think he's rolling with you. If it doesn't, he'll ask you more questions.”After Crane narrowed his candidate pool, he asked those remaining to reveal their plans for the franchise. Brown called his a “case study.” It took fewer than 20 pages plus a few PowerPoint slides and had one prevailing theme.
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