HOUSTON — On the brink of baseball history, Joe Espada finally broke. His players label him even-keeled, a manager who stayed steady through so much: the slew of starting pitching injuries, imperfect roster construction and impossible odds facing a franchise foreign to failure for the past six seasons.
Twenty-five other teams in Major League Baseball’s expansion era started a 162-game season 7-19. The record has become a rallying cry around this Houston Astros clubhouse, one conditioned to derision, dominance, destiny and, during the most difficult year of this golden era, doubt.
“Joe kept his cool when nobody gave a s— about us. Joe kept it even-steven. He always kept it real for us and I think that’s what helped a lot. We were 7-19 and he kept it the same as tonight,” utilityman Mauricio Dubón said.
“He never changed character.”
When he did, the ethos of this entire team emerged. Three outs stood between Houston and an improbable American League West title when Espada’s heart began to race. Tears began to form while a $95 million closer completed his warmup pitches. A hand on his knee calmed whatever chaos consumed him.
“Hey, breathe,” Yordan Alvarez told him, “we got this.”
Just the beginning. pic.twitter.com/z9GvzeXCQh
— Houston Astros (@astros) September 25, 2024
Seventeen pitches from Josh Hader proved Alvarez’s prophecy. Espada cried when they did. Three home runs supported top-notch pitching in a 4-3 win, providing the blueprint this club must follow if it hopes to author more history. The Astros are the third team since 1961 to begin a full season 12-24 and be crowned division champions. Neither of the other two won a World Series.
“(Espada) spoke to us early about believing in one another and leaning on each other and I think this team did exactly that,” starter Hunter Brown said.
“We’re the Houston Astros, man. Simply put. That’s it. We’re the Astros. You have to come and take it. Whether we’re 10 games back, 12 games under .500, that’s who we are. That’s who we believe we are. And that’s what we can do.”
Espada, who waited his entire baseball life to manage, basked in what his team accomplished in a bath of beer and bubbly few ever thought would come. He called his entire coaching staff into a small office for a toast of Le Chemin Du Roi Brut. Hitting coach Alex Cintrón poured an entire bottle over his head before it could begin.
“Great. Unbelievable. Unwavering,” pitching coach Josh Miller said of his boss. “Dealt with a lot of punches early — we all did. It was tough. It was tough to be part of, but he kept a stiff upper lip and kept the vibe positive and the guys turned it around and kept going. It was an awesome job.”
Before the season began, he mused “the more hands-off you are with this team, the better they play. Owner Jim Crane once quipped that managing his club is nothing more than “filling in the (lineup) card.” Starting a season 12-24 must have challenged both men’s perception.
Clinging to culture seems cliche, but it is the bedrock around which this club is built — and what allowed it to survive. Few other explanations are adequate for this ascension, aside from the Seattle Mariners’ monumental collapse and the Texas Rangers’ stark regression. Houston did win baseball’s worst division, but came from depths that few others ever have.
Houston played 79 games before reaching .500 and, after game 73, stood 10 games back of the Mariners. Espada implored his coaching staff to “keep pushing these guys, keep motivating this group.”
“He stayed even-keeled even throughout the tough times, just continued to be a consistent voice. To go from 10 games out of it to winning the division, it’s pretty awesome,” third baseman Alex Bregman said.
“Consistency every day. He believed in us and we just continued to work. This team continued to work.”
Espada made midnight phone calls to managers he worked under, wondering what tact to take with a team threatening to teeter. He called at least one team meeting on April 25, following the three-game sweep at Wrigley Field that sent his team to 7-19. No American League team has a better record since that date.
“He never panicked, never gave up on us,” hitting coach Troy Snitker said. “We never felt like we were out of this thing and that’s how he came to the field every day. That’s the vibe that came off to the players. It helped us stay stable, stay calm and work toward what we needed to do to get back on track and he was a big part of it.”
Measuring any manager’s worth is impossible for those who aren’t immersed in a team’s day-to-day operations. Players and their performance dictate results far more than any in-game maneuvering. The modern manager’s most important task is maintaining harmony in a clubhouse containing 26 different personalities, priorities and preferences.
Doing so amid a spiral is difficult. Doing it with no prior experience only exacerbates matters. Houston prides itself on having a player-led clubhouse. Meddle too much and risk disrupting that harmony. Ignore it altogether and problems persist. Balance is mandatory, but striking it as a first-year manager can be daunting.
“It’s about messaging, it’s about communicating and trusting that they’re doing the right work,” Espada said. “There were days where I had conversations with them about ‘Hey, let’s just make sure we are better at doing these things,’ but leadership is about trusting. When you try to micromanage stuff, things can get sloppy.”
Espada conducted countless interviews with other clubs and constructed plans for if he ever became a manager. None could prepare him for the plight he experienced. After 36 games, FanGraphs gave the Astros 17.6 percent odds to win the division. They dropped to 10.8 percent on June 18, a day Houston’s lineup did not score against the worst team in modern major-league history and fell seven games under .500.
Video of Jose Altuve unleashing a series of expletives between innings invited wonder whether a spiral would soon follow. Altuve is the mild-mannered metronome of this machine, the one man whose outbursts should be scrutinized as something more than a midseason release of anger.
“Thank God we had a familiar face in the clubhouse when we were struggling,” general manager Dana Brown said. “Maybe a new or fresh manager might have gotten frustrated with these guys, but Joe being a new manager, he had some familiarity with the group. He kept things together. He stayed positive, even when it was tough for me to stay positive.”
Brown is inextricably linked to Espada, the first manager he’s ever hired. Together, they rid the roster of $93 million mistakes made by Crane and his cadre of Cooperstown advisers in the absence of a general manager. Replenishing it with veteran presences like Jason Heyward and Hector Neris reinforced clubhouse leadership. Heyward’s go-ahead home run Tuesday helped clinch the division.
Espada believes being passed over by a plethora of other teams seeking managers had a purpose, perhaps because the Astros are where he’s always meant to be. Six seasons as their bench coach brought Espada comfort all season when few others had it. There is an air of inevitability inside this organization, one undeterred by overhaul, tumult or 10-game deficits. Espada exemplifies it.
“He’s been in the game a long time. He knew how good this team could be and I don’t think he ever stopped believing we could get to this point,” Snitker said. “The way he showed up every day really rubbed off on everybody else.”
(Photo: Tim Warner / Getty Images)
