SF Giants News: Former GM misses out on Astros gig

The Houston Astros made a critical hire this week, naming Dana Brown as the team's next general manager. However, the hire meant that former SF Giants general manager Bobby Evans would have to wait a little longer for his next opportunity.

SF Giants News: Former GM misses out on Astros gig

The Astros had four known candidates in Brown, Evans, Michael Hill, and Brad Ausmus. Hill had worked in a variety of front office roles with the Miami Marlins before becoming the team's president of baseball operations in 2013.

Miami decided to part ways with Hill after the 2020 season when they were unable to agree to a new contract. Since then, he has worked in an on-field operations role for Major League Baseball. He withdrew his name from consideration last week.

On the other hand, Ausmus has been involved in baseball in one way or the other since he was drafted in the 48th round of the 1987 draft. He had a successful 18-year career, earning one All-Star selection and three Gold Gloves at catcher. Since his playing career came to an end, the 53-year-old served four seasons as manager of the Detroit Tigers and one as the skipper of the Los Angeles Angels.

He is light on front office experience but well-regarded in baseball, especially in Houston where he spent 10 seasons behind the dish.

Brown was the obvious choice as he has worked as a scout and in the front office since 1994. The Atlanta Braves hired him as vice president of scouting in 2019 where Atlanta had immediate success in the draft, selecting Michael Harris II (third round) and Vaughn Grissom (11th round) that same year and Spencer Strider (fourth round) in the following season. Harris II and Strider have already agreed to contract extensions with Atlanta.

Similar to Brown, Evans has a wealth of front office experience. He was hired by the Giants in 1994 and earned several promotions before being named the team's general manager in 2015. It felt like Evans never found his footing as general manager and his tenure was characterized by the team's steep decline before he was removed from the role near the end of the 2018 season.

The longtime Giants executive became a scapegoat during that era but it was truly an organizational failure.

This was not Evans' first chance for a new opportunity since his time with San Francisco came to an end. He interviewed for the Astros' general manager gig in 2020 following the sign-stealing scandal that led to the removal of Jeff Lunhow as general manager.

Houston replaced Lunhow with James Click. Despite the Astros winning the World Series in 2022, there were clearly philosophical differences between him and ownership that led to his contract unceremoniously expiring.

Given his experience, Evans will continue to get chances to interview for top executive roles. Hopefully, he gets another chance to lead a front office but he will have to wait for the next opportunity.