That’s what I’m curious to see as well.
He gave Click a 3 year contract to start. Would be shocked if he does any less for a new GM.
There may be another reason, too.
I’d be shocked if any GM worth a spit would take a 1-year deal.
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I am on Team Don’t Fucking Care About the Media where the Astros are concerned.
The leak about the Willson Contreras non-trade made it clear to me that Click wasn’t coming back. None of us know how this will turn out, but it’s Crane’s team and his track record as the owner speaks for itself. I think Click will go on to be a fine GM somewhere else and probably be much happier.
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BTW, I was teasing about Luhnow.
FWIW I wouldn’t call that one a leak, Dusty spoke about it all on the record.
Good point. Maybe it was just coincidence.
I appreciate his performance esp the feat of rebuilding the bullpen on the fly.
But whatever closes this window I don’t think it will be the loss of Click.
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I don’t think I would view Crane as an “old school mentality” in any sense vs Click’s “analytics.” Crane is the one who chose analytics by hiring Jeff Luhnow. Then he hired James Click. Click is clearly a good to great GM in terms of the product we see on the field. Especially for the kind of “here take the helm, steer straight, and just don’t crash” that was needed in following Friedman in Tampa, and Luhnow here. My only anxiety about it, really is that the shrewd pitching staff building kinda seemed like it was a Click hallmark and seemed to really be a factor in our success this year also.
I think if “old school mentality” is starting to creep back in to the organization (and that really would worry me), then it is probably coming from others like Dusty, Reggie Jackson, etc who might have Crane’s ear rather than Crane’s beliefs in how the organization should run.
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Good summation here that kind of sums up my worries and fears.
I also wonder if Click, while obviously being very competent, is also not very…I don’t even know what call it, politically savvy, or self -promotional, or networked in, kind of business/baseball man. He’s very much an enigma in the background in terms of like “who is James Click, and where did he come from?” His wiki page is like “oh he worked at baseball prospectus, then for the Rays, then the Astros” vs the long bloated detailed pages you get of executives like Friedman, or Luhnow, or Stearns, or even like Chaim Bloom who was with the Rays, etc.
My speculation:
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Disagreements had more to do with scope of responsibilities rather than length of term. Crane wants to have both a President of Baseball Operations in addition to a GM as is the trend. He wants the Milwaukee guy to fill that spot next year which is why it was just a one year offer to Click to stay in the role that covers both sets of responsibility.
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There are reports that Click was grousing about the situation at the GM meetings (perhaps justifiably, I have no idea what he actually said) in a manner that offended Crane so he pulled even the existing offer.
I am totally unconcerned about all of this as long as Crane hits a homer with his GM hire. I also am in the “fuck the media” camp. They just want something else to blaspheme the Astros for. Not one person here knows what Click was like to work with or what the disagreements were. Crane is no different than your boss or mine. If we cannot get along with him/her, we should go elsewhere. Click did, and I wish him well.
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Makes sense, wasn’t he Click’s right hand man?
Yeah. Not surprised. Figure there will be more let go. New regime will want to bring in their guys.
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I haven’t posted here in long time but I agree 100%. The team won this WS regardless of who the GM was. Click came in at a difficult time but he also walked into a pretty well setup organization that started with the new ownership breaking down everything to the foundation with Ed Wade and masterfully building it into the juggernaut that it is with Luhnow and his team at the helm. Jim Crane I am sure played a big part in that behind the scenes. I really can’t think of any real great moves that Click did (not bad either to be fair) and wonder how much real decision making power he ever really had. I think Crane made most of the main decisions in any event especially when it came to monetary decisions. I sense Dusty and Crane also had a better relationship than Click did with either and he always seemed a bit of an outcast, at least to me. Losing Luhnow hurt far more but then he created his own problems because of his own ego.
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Punctuation and commas are your friend.
Also, “this team won this WS regardless of who the GM was” and “I really can’t think of any real great moves that Click did”?!?! Who do you think put together that bullpen?
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Sounds like it won’t be Stearns. Fingers crossed for Mejdal.
I don’t think it’ll be Sig. Aside from the baggage of being a Luhnow guy, he has said in the past that he left the Astros because he’s likes building rather than maintaining. I think if he wants to be a GM he will be but it’ll be a team that he can build from the ground up