LAS VEGAS — A day after a parade celebrated his World Series champion Houston Astros, General Manager James Click found himself answering questions about his job security. Nearby, reporters covering the general managers’ meetings quizzed Click’s peers who couldn’t defeat his Astros about their less successful seasons, about free agents — about baseball.
The man who built the World Series winners could soon need a new job
But Click, whose contract has expired and who has yet to sign another, was forced to answer questions about whether he would be back next season, questions only Astros owner Jim Crane probably can answer. Most general managers who lead their teams to a World Series title need not worry about their job status. But most owners are not Jim Crane.
“We’re in discussions,” Click said when asked whether he is under contract for next season. He said those discussions with Crane began shortly after he disembarked from a parade float in Houston on Monday and shortly before he hopped on a flight to Las Vegas for the annual assembly of baseball operations leaders — “post-float, preflight,” as he put it. He declined to comment much beyond that.
Astros Manager Dusty Baker also remains without a contract for next season. But Baker, who in the hours after the Astros clinched the title Saturday seemed confident he would be back, was in the same position last year. He worked out a deal shortly thereafter.
About 30 minutes before Click was supposed to join his American League peers in a media availability Tuesday afternoon, the Astros sent out a news release announcing a news conference set for Wednesday afternoon in Houston. Asked what that news conference was about, Click said he wouldn’t comment but acknowledged that he hadn’t heard about it until “recently” — the implication being that he had just heard about it, too. Asked whether he would be there — hypothetically — to have a contract extension announced alongside Baker, he said he would not.
“I’m planning to be here,” he said, “trying to put the team together for next year.”
In some ways, Click’s position is not unique among general managers.
The New York Yankees’ Brian Cashman is also working without a contract. But Cashman said last week that his understanding was that team owner Hal Steinbrenner wants him back and that he expects to be back. What was evident as Click politely dodged questions about whether someone in his position should have to wonder about their future — and, more importantly, why someone in his position would have to wonder — is that despite all the success, his business relationship with Crane is a far more tenuous one.
“We’re different,” Click said. “There are some things we do very differently. There are some things we are very lined up on. That’s going to be true of any relationship between a boss and an employee. He likes to act very quickly in certain cases. I tend towards a more deliberate approach. He is very demanding, but he also gives you the resources to accomplish what he asks you to do.”
Crane hired Click to run baseball operations ahead of the 2020 season after firing Jeff Luhnow in the wake of the team’s sign-stealing scandal. Click had been vice president of baseball operations for the Tampa Bay Rays. The Rays do not have the resources to make mistakes. The Astros do. In that way, Click said, he was trained to be “precise” in his decision-making, something that doesn’t necessarily align with Crane’s reputation as a reactionary and sometimes brash decision-maker.
“I also have no problem being quick and aggressive,” Click said. “But I also want to make sure we’ve done the work before that point and that we don’t follow a ‘fire, ready, aim’ philosophy.”
“Philosophical differences” have undone more than a few powerful pairings over the years, and it seems possible that they may split Click from Crane sooner than later. Click declined to say whether other teams had approached him in the past few days. And he declined to say what negotiations with his owner had entailed.
And he declined to say — or perhaps simply couldn’t — why someone with his track record would not expect to return. After all, most championship-winning GMs roll into these meetings on something of a post-title bender — not exactly disengaged but hardly having to navigate anything resembling awkwardness or drama.
“That is a question for someone else,” he said.
“All of us in these jobs navigate the realities of our particular situation,” added Click, whose particular situation included inheriting a team consumed by scandal, being asked to keep that team in position to win and then leading it to back-to-back World Series appearances capped by this season’s title. Many owners would be pleased with such an outcome. Many general managers would expect to be rewarded for such an outcome.
Click simply wouldn’t say all that himself. He wouldn’t express resentment publicly. In fact, he begged for questions about the team he may or may not be running a few days from now. And he joked that he should be hitting the casino instead of answering questions, given the hot streak he was on this postseason. He spent Tuesday afternoon answering questions about his job security instead.
“ ‘Fair’ is a hard word to define in a lot of ways,” he said. “We all have our own situations that we deal with. We deal with them as best we can.”
Source: WP
