Owner: Astros ‘in discussions’ with GM on deal
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Jeff PassanESPN
In a news conference to welcome back Dusty Baker as manager of the Houston Astros, team owner Jim Crane tiptoed around questions regarding general manager James Click, saying he was “in discussions” with the World Series-winning general manager on a new deal.
Click’s lame-duck status continues to hang over the organization following the Oct. 31 expiration of his contract. Conflict within the organization on baseball operations decision-making persisted throughout the Astros’ championship run this season, sources told ESPN, and Click’s reticence to accept Crane’s one-year contract offer was the talk of baseball’s GM meetings in Las Vegas, where Click arrived Monday after the team’s parade through Houston.
Baker and Click were hired in 2020 after Crane fired manager A.J. Hinch and GM Jeff Luhnow after the revelation of the team’s sign-stealing scheme during its championship-winning 2017 season. The Astros reached the American League Championship Series in 2020 and lost in the World Series in 2021 before beating the Philadelphia Phillies in six games to win the title this season.
“James has done a good job,” Crane said. “He’s stepped in, made some good moves. We’ll sit down and see where we’re going to end up with James.”
The return of Baker, whose 2,093 regular-season wins rank ninth all-time and lead active managers, was seen as a fait accompli after Houston’s title. The 73-year-old, who became the oldest manager to win a championship, had said previously that when he won his first championship as a manager, he planned to chase another. Crane said he and Baker worked out the deal for him to return to the 106-win team within 15 minutes.
“How many times in your life do you say something and then have the opportunity to fulfill it?” Baker said. “And that’s how I feel at this moment. Wasn’t just talking. I meant what I said, and I love keeping my word. So, hey, man, we got a chance to win back-to-back, and this is what I’d like to do.”
Baker said he has a “good relationship” with Click and that “we’ve accomplished some good things together in a short period of time. And so people always looking for if there’s some conflict or not getting along or whatever, but that’s not the case.”
Before the trade deadline, Baker blanched at an agreed-upon deal with the Chicago Cubs that would have landed All-Star catcher Willson Contreras for starter Jose Urquidy. Crane wound up spiking the trade. Baker said he and Click, who came to the Astros from the Tampa Bay Rays, do not always see eye to eye but have learned to work well together.
“You come from two different places,” Baker said. “Everybody in here comes from different places, but the secret is to learn how to coexist in the workplace and that’s what makes a successful formula.”
Click, 44, said Tuesday he was “optimistic” he would return to the Astros, whose baseball operations department he continues to run even though he’s not under contract. Generally, the top executives for World Series-winning teams return the next season with multiple years remaining on their contracts or receive long-term extensions. The last time a head of baseball operations didn’t return to steward his team the next season was 75 years ago, when New York Yankees general manager Larry MacPhail resigned.
Click could leave the Astros and sit out the 2023 season or work in a top role in another organization like Alex Anthopoulos, who left his position as GM of the Toronto Blue Jays following the hiring of president Mark Shapiro and spent two years as a vice president with the Los Angeles Dodgers before taking over as president of baseball operations for Atlanta.
While it’s unclear who would run baseball operations for Houston if Click left, the influence of Hall of Famers Jeff Bagwell and Reggie Jackson on Crane grew this year, sources said. Further, David Stearns, a former Houston assistant GM under Luhnow who remains well-regarded by Crane, stepped down as the Milwaukee Brewers‘ president of baseball operations in October and could rejoin the Astros after his contract expires at the end of the 2023 season.
If Click does remain with the Astros, he’ll do so with Baker as his manager for at least one year — and perhaps longer. Baker left open the possibility of him continuing to manage beyond 2023. When asked about the love he feels from the city and Astros players, Baker offered an answer that applies perhaps best to Click’s situation.
“Love goes both ways,” Baker said. “You hate to be in love and the other person don’t love you.”
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Ryan S. Clark
Once again, the New York Rangers are in search of a new head coach with the club announcing Saturday they have fired Peter Laviolette.
Dismissing Laviolette, who had a year remaining on his contract, comes just days after the Rangers completed what became a trying season that ended Thursday with the team failing to make the playoffs despite reaching the Eastern Conference Finals last season.
In addition to moving on from Laviolette, the Rangers also parted ways with associate coach Phil Housley.
This now means the Rangers are searching for their fourth coach since 2021 with Laviolette joining a list of fired bench bosses that includes David Quinn and Gerard Gallant.
“Today I informed Peter Laviolette and Phil Housley that we’re making a coaching change,” Rangers general manager Chris Drury said in a statement. “I want to thank them both and wish them and their families all the best going forward. Peter is first class all the way, both professionally and personally, and I am truly grateful for his passion and dedication to the Rangers in his time as head coach.”
Laviolette, who won a Stanley Cup as head coach of the Carolina Hurricanes back in 2005-06, was hired at the start of the 2023-24 season. He guided the Rangers to a 55-win season that also saw them lead the league with 114 points. They would advance to the Eastern Conference Finals where they lost to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers in six games.
Entering this season, the Rangers were once again among those teams that was expected to challenge for a Stanley Cup. They catapulted to a 12-4-1 start only to then lose five straight games, which started them down a path of struggling to find consistency.
By December, the Rangers made it known they were open for business. They traded captain Jacob Trouba, who had one year remaining on his contract, to the Anaheim Ducks. Less than two weeks later, they traded one-time prized prospect forward Kaapo Kakko to the Seattle Kraken in exchange for defenseman Will Borgen.
On Jan. 31, the Rangers signaled their intent for a playoff push when they re-acquired J.T. Miller in a trade with the Vancouver Canucks. The Rangers kept going with their roster reshuffle as the trade deadline drew closer. They traded defenseman Ryan Lindgren to the Colorado Avalanche and forward Reilly Smith back to the Vegas Golden Knights while getting defenseman Carson Soucy from the Canucks.
Even with those changes, the Rangers would lose four straight in early March before having two more stretches of three-game losing streaks which saw them fail to gain any sort of grasp in the Eastern Conference wild-card race.
Sources told ESPN’s Emily Kaplan that the Rangers would like to interview several candidates from outside of the organization, including Mike Sullivan and Rick Tocchet if they are available, Joel Quenneville, John Tortorella, Jay Woodcroft, Jay Leach and David Carle.
The Rangers’ firing Laviolette comes hours after the Ducks announced they had fired Greg Cronin. It now leaves the NHL with five head coaching vacancies with the Boston Bruins, Chicago Blackhawks and Philadelphia Flyers ending the regular season with interim coaches in place.
The PWHL’s first expansion team will be based in Vancouver with an announcement scheduled for next week, a person with knowledge of the decision confirmed to The Associated Press on Friday.
The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the league has not revealed its plans. The Province newspaper in Vancouver first reported the city being selected for PWHL expansion.
On hold for now is the league announcing a second expansion city, with Seattle being considered, the person said. The league has other candidates for expansion if discussions break down with officials in Seattle, the person added.
The Vancouver expansion announcement is expected to be made Wednesday, with media invited to attend a news conference billed as being an “historic announcement for sport in Vancouver and British Columbia.” The new team is expected to be based out of the Pacific Coliseum, the former home of the NHL Canucks.
The PWHL declined to verify any details by saying: “We’re continuing to finalize decisions related to expansion and look forward to sharing more details soon.”
The six-team league is in the midst of completing its second season and has spent the past six months evaluating more than 20 markets for the potential to expand by as many as two franchises.
The decision to select Vancouver meets several key criteria for the women’s pro league founded by Dodgers owner Mark Walter, who serves as the PWHL’s financial backer, and tennis icon Billie Jean King in June 2023.
Aside from being a large market, the region has a growing girls’ hockey base, which was evident in January, when a PWHL neutral site game in Vancouver drew a sellout crowd of 19,038 — the fourth-largest turnout for a league game.
Geography also plays a factor with the league seeking to broaden its reach across North America. The league currently has five teams — New York, Boston, Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto — based in the northeast, and one in St. Paul, Minnesota.
PWHL officials have privately expressed concern of a start-up pro women’s league being launched on the West Coast.
Adding an expansion team in Seattle would make the most sense in part because of its proximity to Vancouver, while also already home to two pro women’s teams, the WNBA Storm and NWSL Reign FC. The PWHL’s neutral site game in Seattle in January drew a crowd of 12,608.
Other potential markets include Denver, Detroit and Quebec City, though it’s more likely the PWHL would desire a second expansion team based in the U.S.
The PWHL’s nine-city Takeover Tour of neutral games this season drew 123,601 fans in helping the league top the 1 million mark in attendance last month.
The PWHL’s regular season resumes next week — with each team having three games left — following a three-week break coinciding with the women’s world championships being held in Czechia (Czech Republic). The four-team playoffs are set to open in the first week of May.
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