With the 2018 season creeping up on us, the World Series Champion Houston Astros announced the managers and staff for all their minor league affiliates last week. There have been some changes, some promotions, and many are former Astros, themselves.
Triple-A Fresno Grizzlies
Rodney Linares (pictured above) was the manager of the Double-A Corpus Christi Hooks for the past three years (and was named Texas League Manager of the Year in 2015), and was “promoted” to the Fresno Grizzlies for the 2018 season.
Linares, 40, spent two years as a light-hitting infielder in the Gulf Coast Rookie League (1997 for the Detroit Tigers, and 1998 for the Astros), compiling a .168 BA over 110 total plate appearances.
Overall, this will be Linares’ 21st season with the Astros. His father, Julio, is a senior advisor in player development on the international side.
Dyar Miller will be the pitching coach for his third consecutive year, with Darryl Robinson returning as the hitting coach. Miller, 71, never pitched for Houston, but spent 1975 through 1981 for the Mets, Orioles, and a couple others. His last MLB appearance was as a 35-year-old on September 2, 1981, against the Astros, pitching a scoreless inning for the Mets.
Double-A Corpus Christi Hooks
Omar Lopez has been a manager in the Astros’ system since 2009, and was the Buies Creek Class Advanced-A manager last season. He’ll move up to manage the Hooks in 2018. Another light-hitting infielder, Lopez spent three years in the White Sox and D-Backs’ lower minors, never rising above A ball from 1996-1998. Lopez, 41, is entering his 20th season with the Astros.
Bill Murphy will be the Buies Creek Astros pitching coach after being with Houston’s Greeneville and Tri-City affiliates the last two years. 29-year-old Troy Snitker, a former catcher in the Braves’ system will be the hitting coach.
Advanced-A Buies Creek Astros
After just one season as the manager of the Tri-City ValleyCats (New York-Penn League short-season Class A), 42-year-old Morgan Ensberg has been promoted to the manager of Buies Creek. He has been a coach in Houston’s system since 2013.
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Ensberg was an Astro third baseman for parts of 2000 through 2007, while also putting in time with the Padres and Yankees. His best season with the Astros was 2005, when he was named to the National League All-Star team, while being voted the Astros’ most valuable player and earning an NL Silver Slugger Award. That year, Ensberg hit .283, with 30 doubles, 36 home runs, and 101 RBIs for the NL Champions. He came in 4th in the NL MVP voting that year.
In 2006, with Houston, Ensberg joined the San Francisco Giants’ Barry Bonds as the only major league players to record at least 100 walks (101 for Ensberg) and have fewer hits (91) than walks. Bonds did it six times, including four years in a row.
Ensberg, in 2000, also helped get the Round Rock Express out of the station in a powerful way by helping the Double-A Houston affiliate win the Texas League Championship in the team’s maiden season. He hit .300, with 28 homers and 90 RBI. Ensberg was inducted into the Express Hall of Fame in 2015.
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In fact, Ensberg is the only MLB player in history to have won championship rings in College (USC 1998), Rookie League (Auburn ’98), Single-A (Kissimmee Astros ’99), AA (Round Rock 2000), AAA (New Orleans Zephyrs 2001), and to have played in a World Series (2005, Astros).
Drew French will be the pitching coach for Buies Creek, and Ben Rosenthal will be the hitting coach after both helped Quad Cities to a Midwest League Title in 2017.
Class A Quad Cities River Bandits
Mickey Storey, 31, will make his managerial debut with the River Bandits. In 2017, he was a development coach at Buies Creek. Storey pitched in 26 games coming out of Houston’s bullpen in 2012, and chalked up a 3.86 ERA in 30.1 IP.
Graham Johnson, 28, will be the pitching coach coming over from Morehead State University. He never rose above AA ball in the Marlins’ organization. Dillon Lawson will be the hitting coach, arriving from the University of Missouri, after a year in the same position with Houston’s short-season Class A Tri-City team.
Short-Season A Tri-City ValleyCats
Jason Bell will make his professional managerial debut for the ValleyCats after being a development coach and a manager in college.
Dominican native Erick Abreu, 34, will be the pitching coach for Tri-City, his 5th season in the Astros’ system. Abreu spent five years pitching in the Astros’ system, topping out a couple of times at the AAA level. His pro career ended in 2015.
30-year-old Jeremy Barnes will return as the hitting coach. A native Texan, Barnes was a multi-position infielder in the Phillies’ organization from 2009-2012, with a combined batting average of .265.
Rookie Ball
Wladimir Sutil returns as the manager of the Astros’ rookie-level Gulf Coast League affiliate (GCL Astros). The 33-year-old Venezuelan native was an infielder in the Houston organization from 2004 through 2011, before spending 2012 in the Arizona D-backs’ upper minors. He never was able to crack through into MLB play, despite parts of three years in AAA.
Charlie Romero, 51, will manage the Astros’ rookie-level club in the Dominican Summer League. Romero filled six seasons in the Toronto Blue Jays’ and California Angels’ organizations from 1985-1990, never rising above the Advanced-A level.
The Astros, in 2018, will have four minor league coordinators who will rove around their farm system. Curiously, the list includes no hitting coordinator. Josh Miller, 39, will be the pitching coordinator. After being drafted by the Phillies in 2001 out of N. Carolina State, Miller spent four years in the Houston system between Double and Triple-A, from 2005-2008, never seeing a big league stadium.
Chris Holt will be the roving assistant pitching coordinator, supporting Miller. Holt, a Dallas native, made a name for himself as a starting pitcher in an Astros uniform from 1996 through 2000, missing the 1998 season due to a torn rotator cuff. He was flipped to Detroit in 2001 in what has come to be known as the second Brad Ausmus trade. In his four seasons with Houston, Holt worked to a 4.51 ERA and a 21-42 record.
39-year-old Josh Bonifay has been tapped as the organization’s field coordinator. He spent four years (2013-2016) managing for Greeneville and Quad Cities in the Astros’ lower minors. He spent 2017 as the Texas Rangers’ major league field coordinator. The utility player was drafted by Pittsburgh in 1996, and spent his entire eight-year career in their system, save for his last pro season, in 2006, where he played every infield position but shortstop for Houston’s AA Corpus Christi Hooks. Never a major leaguer, Bonifay amassed a .284 lifetime minor league average and 133 homers in just over 800 games.
Mark Bailey, 56, will serve as Houston’s catching coordinator throughout the system. Bailey was a 6th-round draft pick out of Missouri State in 1982, and spent 1984-1988 behind the plate for Houston, building a .223 average. He ended his career with the Giants in 1992.
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