LAS VEGAS — About 67 hours after Astros outfielder Kyle Tucker gloved the final out of the World Series, Houston general manager James Click ascended an elevator into a casino ballroom’s foyer. He stood among his peers at the GM Meetings but apart from them. Click had earned a championship ring for his efforts in 2022. What he had not yet earned was a finalized contract to continue running Houston’s baseball operations department in 2023.
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Click described himself as “in discussions” with Astros owner Jim Crane regarding his future with the organization. Thirty minutes before Click spoke with reporters on Tuesday, the team announced a press conference for Wednesday afternoon at Minute Maid Park. Click said he did not plan on attending the event, which is expected to announce manager Dusty Baker’s new contract.
USA Today reported that Crane offered both Baker, 73, and Click, 44, one-year contracts for next season. Baker told MLB.com he intended to accept the offer. Click was less definitive about whether he would return.
“I’ll address that when I have a little bit more to comment on,” Click said. He provided a version of that answer to a variety of questions during a 20-minute scrum with reporters. He declined to estimate his confidence that he would come back. He would not delve into the fairness of not being offered a multi-year contract despite Houston’s success. He said he had not given much thought to the status of David Stearns, a former Astros executive who recently stepped down as Milwaukee’s president of baseball operations, whose Brewers contract expires after 2023.
And Click deferred when asked why he might not return.
“That’s a question for somebody else,” Click said.
The tension between Click and Crane, a 68-year-old logistics magnate who purchased the Astros in 2011, provided the backdrop to Houston’s dominant run this postseason. The front office was already bound for turnover, with assistant general manager Pete Putila leaving to become the Giants general manager and international scout Oz Ocampo departing to become a Marlins assistant general manager. The presence of Click would offer stability as the organization replaced those cogs.
Crane hired Click during a historic crisis for his organization. In the wake of Major League Baseball’s investigation into Houston’s usage of an illegal camera to steal signs in 2017 and 2018, Crane fired general manager Jeff Luhnow and manager A.J. Hinch in January 2020. Crane’s first move was to hire Baker, a highly-regarded veteran who had reached the playoffs in each of his four prior managerial stops. For his chief executive, Crane chose Click, the vice president of baseball operations with the Tampa Bay Rays.
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Click, a career-long Ray, guided the Astros through the tumult of 2020, in which Astros players were targeted for retaliation in spring training and the season itself was upended by the COVID-19 pandemic. Houston reached the American League Championship Series that autumn. A year later, the Astros won the American League pennant for the third time in five years. In 2022, the club was even better: 106 wins in the regular season, sweeps in the first two rounds and a resounding victory over the Phillies in the World Series.
Click inherited an enviable armory of talent from Luhnow. He earned credit from his peers for not meddling with a good thing, sticking with the championship core rather than rending it apart. The team only got stronger even as Crane permitted All-Stars like Gerrit Cole, George Springer and Carlos Correa to depart in free agency. Click augmented an already dynamic bullpen with canny acquisitions of relievers like Rafael Montero, Héctor Neris and Ryne Stanek, creating a unit that overwhelmed opposing hitters this past postseason.
The maneuvers netted Click a delirious celebratory bash on Saturday. “I don’t know what day it is,” Click told AT&T Sportsnet Southwest. “I don’t know where I am. But I am very wet and I am very cold and it smells like champagne and beer and cigars, so I think I did something OK.” Two days later, he marveled at the throng of Houstonians ringing the streets for the parade. “I just won a World Series,” Click said on Tuesday. “I was in a parade yesterday. I’m doing pretty good.”
Soon after he stepped off the float, Click indicated, reality intervened. He spoke with Crane soon after the parade ended. The talks lasted fewer than the three hours between the parade’s end and Click’s flight to Las Vegas. Click declined to comment on whether he had negotiated with Crane for an extension during the season.
Click’s deal expired on Oct. 31. This did not make him unique among the executives assembled on Tuesday. Yankees general manager Brian Cashman is also running his club without a contract, working as an employee at will. Cashman has said he will hash out a new deal with owner Hal Steinbrenner. Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman worked in a similar void for a few weeks after the 2019 season before agreeing to a contract.
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Click stood on shakier ground. He had sparred with Crane about the size of the baseball operations department, The Athletic reported before the World Series; Luhnow had run a famously lean shop, whereas Click’s experience in Tampa Bay led him to expand the scouting department. ESPN reported that Crane nixed a proposed trade that would have sent pitcher José Urquidy to the Cubs in exchange for catcher Willson Contreras.
There were also stylistic clashes between the two. When asked about his relationship with Crane, Click answered, “We’re different.”
“There are some things that we do very differently,” Click said. “There are some things that we’re lined up on. And that’s going to be true of any relationship between a boss and an employee. I think he likes to act very quickly, in certain cases. I tend toward a more deliberate approach. He is very demanding, but he also gives you the resources to accomplish what he tasks you to do.”
Click said that Crane’s involvement in baseball operations differed from his experience in Tampa Bay, where owner Stu Sternberg has earned raves from his staffers. “Stu cares about us,” Rays general manager Peter Bendix said. “He creates this environment where we care about each other.”
Crane’s friends in the industry sounded sympathetic but declined to address the matter. “I’m very happy that he has a World Series ring,” Bendix said. Added Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom, “I don’t want to comment on it. I’m so happy for him that he won the World Series. He’s an incredible friend. But it’s not my situation to comment on.”
The uncertainty added intrigue to these meetings, which serve as a kickoff bazaar for the winter. It remains to be seen if Click will lead the Astros into a title defense. He appeared pained as he fended off questions on Tuesday. But he had not totally lost his sense of humor. Only a few days before he got to Las Vegas, he had won it all.
“I’m on a hot streak,” Click said. “I figure I’ll go hit the tables.”
(Top photo: Bob Levey / Getty Images)
