Houston Astros part ways with manager Joe Espada in franchise reset that could mark end of era

The Houston Astros have parted ways with manager Joe Espada, the team announced Wednesday. The news arrived a day after a report surfaced that Espada was granted permission to interview for the Seattle Mariners' manager position .

While the Astros are moving on from Espada, they also revealed Wednesday that they're retaining pitching coach Josh Miller, first-base coach Dave Clark, field coordinator Jason Bell, hitting coach Victor Rodriguez and bullpen catcher Javier Bracamonte. Plus, per the team, bench coach Omar Lopez has been offered an opportunity to remain with the organization in a new role.

During Espada's three seasons at the helm, Houston went 256-229. In that span, the Astros never won more than 88 games in a season. Conversely, they didn't finish one of those campaigns below .500. Despite a horde of injuries and questionable front-office decisions, Espada's Astros reached the postseason twice.

Their resilience turned heads, particularly when they rebounded from a 12-24 start in 2024 to win the American League West crown, and when they began this season 20-31 before scrounging together the pieces to field a division-winning squad, albeit in a historically weak AL West this time around .

Yet Espada-led Houston teams didn't fare well in the playoffs. They went a combined 0-4, bowing out in the wild-card round both times. This season, the Astros were swept by the upstart Chicago White Sox . Even though Houston was at home for each game of the series, it didn't lead once. Daikin Park didn't sell out for either matchup, and Astros fans didn't hold back their frustration toward the team in Game 1. After the series-opening defeat, multiple players conveyed their disappointment in the boos they heard, although left-handed relief pitcher Bennett Sousa ultimately apologized for his comments about the fan base .

An Astros pitching staff — ravaged by injury and poorly constructed from the outset — dug the team holes against the White Sox that were too deep for even Houston's power-surged bats to lift the group out of the jaws of defeat.

No team hit more home runs this season than the Astros, who wrapped the regular season with 226 dingers, in part thanks to AL MVP favorite Yordan Alvarez and his 42 long balls. The problem was that Houston was responsible for the seventh-worst ERA (4.45) in the bigs.

Astros owner Jim Crane said in August, according to The Athletic , that Espada was "doing what he can do with what he's got." That remark was made in the wake of Crane firing beleaguered general manager Dana Brown .

Brown entered the 2026 campaign in the final year of his contract, as did Espada. Brown's offseason was much maligned. The Astros didn't wind up with convincing answers to their outfield questions, and the arms he brought in floundered. Namely, former Nippon Professional Baseball standout Tatsuya Imai struggled mightily, as the righty fell out of Houston's starting rotation.

Espada, 51, was regarded as a players' manager throughout his time leading the Astros' clubhouse. Before landing the skipper gig, he spent six seasons as a bench coach for the club, working under A.J. Hinch and Dusty Baker.

His removal is part of a franchise reset that could mark the end of an era for Houston, which won its first two World Series titles in 2017 and 2022 and has made the postseason nine of the past 10 seasons.