Seattle Mariners Manager: ESPN's Buster Olney Weighs in on Joe Espada Interview

Earlier this week, we learned that the Seattle Mariners are going to interview former Houston Astros manager Joe Espada for their vacant managerial opening.

Espada just spent three years with the Astros, winning two American League West titles. The Astros did not renew his contract, which makes him free to interview wherever he wants.

On Thursday, I raised my biggest question about Espada, saying that my first reaction to this news was "If the Astros can't wait to get rid of him, then why are the Mariners lining up to interview him? If your biggest division rival is running away, why are you running toward?"

Later on Thursday, I asked ESPN MLB Insider Buster Olney on the "Refuse to Lose Territory" podcast if that was a fair reaction or not.

"It's not a fair reaction, because right now, the Astros are a total outlier in how they do business.

Like, I mean, I heard in August that it looked like the Astros weren't going to retain Joe Espada. And they didn't want to retain Dana Brown, who was their general manager for recent years. And this is when the Astros are in the postseason hunt. They're trying to win the American League West, and yet they had decided to move on.

Look, Jim Crane, their owner, at this point, I think he probably is more involved in baseball ops than any other owner in baseball. And I think that there's a learning curve there...

I've known Joe Espada for a long time. I think he's a great baseball guy. You know, is he a good manager? I'm not around the team. I can't tell you. I think he does a good job, but I'm not in the clubhouse.

But I would not take anything the Houston Astros do at this point at face value, because they just run their team differently than anybody else. When Jim Crane has basically said, 'I feel comfortable running baseball operations.' he's the Jerry Jones of Major League Baseball right now."

As a result of Olney's comments, I think it's fair to be more open about Espada's interview. Him being let go might say more about the Astros and Crane than it does about Espada himself. 

A lot of Mariners fans have said that they want a manager with experience, which he has. And it's certainly noteworthy that Espada has managed against the Mariners before and has a clear picture of their shortcomings. He also has inherent knowledge of how the rest of the American League West does business, especially the Astros, the team the Mariners are most often trying to beat for a division title.

Those are certainly reasons to be interested in Espada as a manager. There's no definitive timeline on when the M's will get a hire done, but the looming MLB lockout certainly throws a wrench into things moving forward.

Dan Wilson spent 2-plus years as the manager of the Mariners, helping Seattle win the American League West in 2025, the lone year that Espada didn't win it.