10 names that would make sense in Houston Astros' manager search

With Wednesday morning’s news that Joe Espada is officially out, the Houston Astros are on the hunt for their fourth manager in the past seven years.

When Jim Crane was looking to replace A.J. Hinch in 2020, he went with an experienced, steady hand in Dusty Baker and was rewarded with another championship. When Baker left, the Astros owner went with less experience but still a known commodity, promoting Espada and giving him his first managerial job.

Now, which way will the Astros go? If they’re looking for someone who knows what it’s like to be the man everyone looks to on the top step of the dugout, there are guys with experience interested in getting back in the game like David Ross and Rocco Baldelli. If going younger and more cutting edge is appealing, there are intriguing guys out there like Dodgers bench coach Danny Lehmann, who is from Houston, or 36-year-old White Sox bench coach Walker McKinven.

Here are 10 names that would make sense for the Astros’ open managerial job…

Danny Lehmann, Dodgers bench coach

The 41-year-old Lehmann, who was a finalist for the Atlanta Braves job last offseason. is considered one of the brightest young bench coaches in the game, but it’s his ties to Houston that make him really interesting. Lehmann starred at The Woodlands High School and Rice where he became an eighth-round draft pick of the Minnesota Twins. After making it as high as Triple-A as a catcher, Lehmann finished his playing career with one season with the Sugar Land Skeeters before retiring and joining the Los Angeles Dodgers as an advance video scout in 2015. He later moved up to game planning and communications coach before taking over as Dave Roberts’ bench coach in 2023, winning back-to-back World Series in that role.

Rodney Linares, Rays bench coach

Linares, who came up as a manager in the Astros’ minor league system, has been a Rays assistant for eight seasons, including the last four as Kevin Cash’s bench coach in Tampa Bay. The Rays certainly don’t spend money like a lot of the league, including the Astros, but in Linares’ time as bench coach there, he’s been a part of a 99-win team in 2023 and this year’s squad that won 98 games and is back in the American League Championship Series. Julio Linares, Rodney’s father, spent nearly three years as a coach with the Astros, including working his way up through the minors to join Terry Collins’ big-league staff in the 1990s. Rodney got his start in the Astros system as an instructor at just 21 years old and eventually managed Double-A Corpus Christi and Triple-A Fresno where he mentored future Astros stars like Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa, George Springer and Alex Bregman. Linares also managed the Dominican Republic in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, but the Dominican didn’t advance out of the knockout stage.

Omar López, Astros bench coach

López, who turns 50 in January, deserves to be a big-league manager, but his proximity to Espada, both personally and style-wise, may preclude that from happening in Houston. López, who often carpooled to Daikin Park with Espada, has been in the Astros organization for more than 25 years, serving as a scout and helping the club sign a teenaged Jose Altuve out of Venezula, then working as a minor-league infield instructor and manager for more than a decade. López, who joined the big-league staff under Dusty Baker in 2020 and has been the Astros’ bench coach since Espada was promoted to manager after the 2023 season, earned a lot of recognition last offseason when he led Venezuela to the World Baseball Classic title after also taking his home country to the WBC quarterfinals in 2023. He also managed Cangrejeros de Santurce to a Puerto Rican winter league title last offseason. The Astros say López has been “offered an opportunity to remain in the Astros organization in a new role,” but he likely is looking to continue his pursuit for a big-league manager’s job.

Brad Ausmus, Yankees bench coach

Ausmus, whose Astros ties are obvious, actually has interviewed for two previous Astros managerial openings, getting a look for the job in 2012 when the team hired Bo Porter and again in 2020 before the Astros went with Dusty Baker. The 57-year-old Ausmus, who played catcher for 10 seasons with the Astros, is close friends with trusted Jim Crane assistant Jeff Bagwell from their playing days with the Astros. Ausmus has had two separate managerial stints, leading the Tigers to a 90-win season in 2014 in his first season as manager, only to be fired after going 64-98 in Year 4 in Detroit. He got the Angels job in 2019 but was fired after just one season in which he went 72-90 and the club went through the overdose death of pitcher Tyler Skaggs, whose family reached a settlement with the Angels in a wrongful death suit. Ausmus later spent one season as a bench coach for the Oakland A’s and has been the New York Yankees bench coach for the past three seasons.

Alex Cora, former Red Sox manager

Cora reportedly has decided he’d like to take a full year off to spend time with his family instead of getting right back into managing, but would a call from the Astros change those thoughts and would Jim Crane actually go here? Probably not. Cora was the leading candidate to take over the Philadelphia Phillies after their president Dave Dombrowski admitted he tried to hire Cora for the job when he fired Rob Thomson in April. Now, it appears he’s told the Phillies to look elsewhere. Cora was the Astros’ bench coach for one season when they won it all in 2017 before getting his first managerial job with the Red Sox and taking them to the 2018 World Series championship. Of course, a year later, Cora got caught up in the Astros’ sign-stealing investigation, which concluded the Red Sox, under Cora, also were using video replay to decipher the opponents’ signs in 2018. The Red Sox let go of Cora in January 2020, then Major League Baseball suspended him for a year. Cora was brought back to manage the Red Sox in 2021 where he remained until he was fired after Boston got off to a slow start this season.

Carlos Beltrán, Mets special assistant

You can probably lump this one with the case against Alex Cora as to why the Astros wouldn’t try this. Beltrán had two stints as the Astros with a player, but he was the only player named in Major League Baseball’s investigation into the 2017 Astros’ sign-stealing scheme. That mention got him fired as the New York Mets’ manager just two months after he took the job and before he ever even got to conduct a spring training practice. Beltrán, who went into the Hall of Fame in August, currently works in the New York Mets’ front office and has indicated he’s not sure if he’s even interested in being a manager at this point in his life.

Walker McKinven, White Sox bench coach

McKinven is only 36 years old, but his name already is being mentioned as a candidate for openings this offseason. The former college catcher got an early start, working in the Chicago Cubs’ minor-league system at just 24 years old, before moving on to work in advance scouting for the Texas Rangers in 2015 and then going to the Milwaukee Brewers where he spent nine seasons working in advance scouting, major league strategy, pitching and catching strategy and as run-prevention coordinator. He’s been Will Venable’s bench coach with the White Sox since 2025, including this year’s run through Houston and into the American League Division Series where Chicago lost a tough series to the Cleveland Guardians.

Rocco Baldelli, former Twins manager

Baldelli, who played center field for eight years with the Tampa Bay Rays and Boston Red Sox, has worked with the right organizations. After retiring early at just 29 years old, Baldelli spent three years as a roving minor league hitting and outfield instructor with the Rays before getting promoted to the big-league staff in 2017 where he analyzed the tendencies of opposing hitters, while coaching defense. After two years in that role, he got his first managerial job with the Minnesota Twins, who won 101 games in 2019 and helped Baldelli be named American League Manager of the Year in his first season at the helm. Baldelli took the Twins back to the playoffs in 2020 and helped them win the AL Central with current Astros third baseman Carlos Correa in 2023. After going 70-92 in 2025, Baldelli was fired and now he works with the Los Angeles Dodgers as a special assistant.

David Ross, former Cubs manager

Ross is thought to be a candidate for the Mets’ job, so he would make sense as someone the Astros might look at as well. Ross won a World Series with the Cubs in the final season of his playing career, then took over as their manager after the 2019 season. He led the Cubs to a division title in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, but was fired after going 83-79 in 2023. Ross, who served as the United States’ bullpen coach during the most recent World Baseball Classic, was said to have been well-liked in Chicago with his dismissal having more to do with Craig Counsell being available than displeasure with Ross in the dugout. Ross spent this season as an MLB analyst for ESPN.

Morgan Ensberg, minor league manager

This would be a stretch, because he hasn’t spent time on a big-league staff, but Ensberg, who was a big part of the Astros’ 2005 World Series team as a power-hitting third baseman, began his coaching career in 2013 as an infield coach for the Astros’ Single-A team before moving into a role as the team’s minor league special assignment coach. He later managed the Astros’ short-season Single-A team in 2017 and led Buies Creek to the High-A championship in 2018. Ensberg left for the Tampa Bay Rays’ system and was named the Southern League Manager of the Year in 2019 for his role with the Double-A Montgomery Biscuits. He’s spent the the past three seasons managing the Rays’ Triple-A Durham Bulls.

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This article originally published at 10 names that would make sense in Houston Astros’ manager search.