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And then there was one.
Astros general manager, Jeff Luhnow, and Astros owner, Jim Crane, held a press conference Thursday morning to announce the hiring of new Astros manager Bo Porter. Porter is currently the third base coach of the Washington Nationals, who happen to be headed to the post season. According the Luhnow, they started with 49 candidates and were able to work it down to four finalists– deciding on Porter after collaborating with the Astros front office staff and special advisers, including Craig Biggio.
Luhnow stated the Astros believe Porter is the best manager for be Astros because of his personality, charisma, enthusiasm and the environments created in the baseball clubhouses he’s been in. They spoke with other managers and players around the league for references and even some Houstonians about Porter’s ability to lead this team.
The Houston Astros are currently 51-105 and are headed to the worst season of franchise history. Patience is a keyword that Crane, and Luhnow stress, but Luhnow admits, “We’re not patient, we want to minimize the time fame…[though]we don’t wan’t to steal from tomorrow to help today.” Sometimes you can’t rush things that will provide long term successes, but you also can’t upset the season ticket holders for too long.
The front office stressed holding off on questions for Porter until the end of the Nationals’ season out of respect for him and the organization.Luhnow said he will have minimal contact with Porter unless of anything urgent. ” We are honored to be able to talk with him, we got the guy we wanted who’s best for the Astros”, said Luhnow.
When asked about the direction of managerial staff, Luhnow and Crane say nothing is yet set in stone. Everyone on staff will speak with Porter and will all be involved in the process. As for Tony DeFranesco, the front office says they will have him with the Astros organization in some capacity. “The reason we brought on DeFranseco was we wanted to keep him in the organization.” , says Luhnow.
The Astros head to face the Brewers today and then finish the season facing the Cubs in Chicago.
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