Brad Ausmus Ready to Put Astros in a Position to Compete Once Again

The Houston Astros now have their next manager, as they have hired Brad Ausmus to take over, and with this move, in addition to hiring Randy Flores to be the next general manager, Houston has filled two of the bigger voids they had going into the offseason, which is good progress for owner Jim Crane.

Focusing on Ausmus, he is a former player and actually played for the Astros, but in his press conference on Monday, when he was introduced, he wanted to make clear what he would like to accomplish as the manager for Houston.

"I'm not here to talk about glory days. I'm here to talk about the Houston Astros today and the Houston Astros going into 2027, which is now my main focus and certainly the goal is to win the World Series. Making the playoffs, great step, winning the division, great step. But the goal is and should be every single year to win the World Series and that's why I'm here," Ausmus said.

Earlier in the press conference, Ausmus did acknowledge his playing days and his time with the Astros as a player, but with this quote it is very clear what his ultimate goal as the manager which is to compete at a high level and ultimately help Houston go win a World Series once again.

While the ultimate goal is the World Series, Ausmus did talk about the fact that there are steps to getting there, but he is right, as a manager the goal has to be winning at the highest level, and that is winning a World Series title.

For the Astros, it is great to have a former player on staff like Ausmus who understands that side of it, but something different that Ausmus also brings is the fact that he played for Houston, which could help him to understand how Crane thinks and the type of team he will have when spring training starts and when the 2027 season starts.

That said, Ausmus, Flores, and Crane do have to get to know each other and how they think on the business side to figure out the types of players that they are targeting in free agency as well as on the trade market because with a lockout expected to occur early in December, Houston does not have a ton of time to work with before all roster moves are halted for who knows how long.

As a result of that, Ausmus, Flores, and Crane not only need to formulate a plan of the players they want to target, as well as how they want to manage the players who are currently on the roster as well as players who are now free agents from the 2026 team. Additionally, Ausmus, Flores, and Crane all need to decide on what the vision and the foundation for this team will be for this team moving forward.

With that in mind, it will be interesting to see how Ausmus, Flores, and Crane work together in building this roster, but if one thing is certain it is that the ultimate goal is to win a World Series title sooner rather than later and Ausmus has made that clear which could help him to truly maximize the roster that Houston has heading into 2027.

So, as the Astros move through the offseason and prepare for 2027, it will be interesting to see how Ausmus can help implement the vision for this team and whether or not he can make Houston a very competitive force and surprise the entire MLB next year.

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