Ex-Astros GM breaks silence on firing, owner
· Yahoo Sports
Dana Brown, in his first interview since being let go as general manager of the Houston Astros, told Jim Bowden and Jim Duquette on MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM that he is still rooting for the team and its owner.
Jim Crane dismissed Dana Brown this week despite the fact that the Astros were — and are — in position to win the American League West. Although announced as a “mutual parting of ways,” subsequent reporting revealed Crane fired Brown from the position he held nearly four years.
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“I have a lot of respect for (Jim Crane),” Brown said. “He gave me the opportunity. I’m the seventh Black general manager in baseball. Think about it, there’s only been seven of us that walk the face of this earth that had this job. So, I’m very grateful to him for doing that.”
Crane’s willingness to stand back and let his GM work has been unusually low. He dismissed general manager James Click after the Astros won the 2022 World Series, and assumed control of the team’s baseball operations in the interim. He hired Brown in January 2023.
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Crane also reportedly prevented Brown from trading reliever Bryan Abreu to the Minnesota Twins for outfielder Trevor Larnach before the Aug. 3 deadline after the two teams had a verbal agreement on the deal.
“Jim Crane allowed me to do a lot, right? So I don’t think that he micromanaged my whole tenure here,” Brown said. “Of course, as the (GM), you have to fill in the owner and you have to let him know what’s going on and different things like that. … The only thing I can tell you is that he allowed me to run the club, and I had the freedom and flexibility to make some moves, but also other moves that we have to go through ownership, and that’s just the way it is. That’s baseball.”
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Brown also defended two of his least successful offseason acquisitions — free agent pitcher Tatsuya Imai and pitcher Mike Burrows, whom he acquired from the Pittsburgh PIrates — as players who are “going to be good.”
They were not good enough in time to save Brown’s job. Burrows is 4-9 with a 5.99 ERA in 18 games (17 starts). Imai was moved to the bullpen after struggling as a starter, and is 6-4 with a 5.32 ERA overall.
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