October 9, 2025 • 11 mins
The Athletic's Chandler Rome hops on with Wex and AC to talk about the newest moves made by the Houston Astros, the firing of several staff mebers and a direction for the former AL West champions going into 2026. Is this the writing on the wall for the Astros to make change?
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
It is the A team Sports Talk seven to ninety
wex ac Cole Thompson with you on a Thursday edition
of the program and joined as promised by Chandler Rome
of the Athletic So Chandler, I don't think that. I
don't think a lot of these moves the astros made
are surprising so much as the fact that maybe we
(00:26):
weren't expecting all of them to be made this offseason.
Is that, like a is that a fair assessment of
what's gone on with all of these firings?
Speaker 2 (00:34):
If you will, well, I think you had to know
changes were coming, especially when you know they can paint
it how they want, but taking a week to decide
whether you're going to bring your manager or GM back,
that's the first sign that things are probably there's some
uneasiness and some tension and some things that need to
(00:55):
be resolved in the organization. So once I made the
decision that Dana Brown and Joe Spott we're going to
continue in their roles, you know, you kind of knew
that they couldn't just run it back as it was
both on the personnel side and you know, on the
coaching staff and the staff side, So you know, I've
kind of said my piece about the offense and about
(01:15):
hitting coaches in general. You know, look, they have a
lot of guys on the team that swing a lot.
They have a lot of guys on the team that
chase outside the strike zone a lot. They have a
lot of guys with a similar offensive profile. And when
they got hit with a bunch of injuries this year
to the guys that are not that profile, you saw
what happened. So you know, is it is bringing in
(01:40):
two new hitting coaches going to just completely revitalize the offense.
I don't believe. So. I think maybe what I've took
more from the moves today is, you know, you look
at Troy Snicker, Alex Sindron, Michael Collins, and Jeremiah Randall,
even the head trainer. You know, they've all been with
the team since at least twenty eighteen. It's a it's
(02:01):
a group that is very much the same. Like, not
much has changed here other than you know, the couple
managers and the GM office has changed, but the coaching
staff and the philosophies and the voices have stayed the same.
I wonder, honestly, if they were just looking to shake
it up a little bit like, see if a different voice,
see if you know, a different set of eyes, a
(02:21):
fresh set of eyes can maybe help them unlock some stuff.
But you know, that's kind of the main thing I
took away from it. I'm not sitting here saying that
they're going to go hire two hitting coaches and they're
going to lead the league in ops next year. It's
it's more than that, Like, it's not just as that
bunch of a quick fix.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
And the other part of it with that, you are
who you are, and these are the players that were
acquired over the years or developed over the years. How
much I'm very hesitant to blame hitting coaches the ones
that get fired mid season, it's even worse, it's it's
usually not on them for the vast majority of the
issues that you have. But is it more about and
I talked about this last second, It's just more about situation,
(03:00):
hitting decisions made with the bat, that even hitters who
have a certain profile can adapt to two strike hitting,
hitting behind runners, making more contact things like that.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
I mean, sure they can. They can implement all these
you know, new philosophies and new rules and things like
that of doing stuff different when you two strikes doing
stuff different when they're second, third, one out. But at
the end of the day, like the hitting coaches aren't
going up there and like actually executing. They can say
all they want, Like my pushback this whole time has
been do you guys not think that Troy Snicker or
(03:32):
Alex sin Tron, like sat Yiner dieas down at one point,
like hey, you need to stop chasing at everything outside
the strike zone, or like they've sat people down and
like they know what these guys as shortcomings are. It's
just it didn't get fixed. And I don't know how
much of that you can put on the player. I
don't know how much of that you caut on the coach.
I think there's a fair serving of both that deserve blame.
(03:54):
But yeah, I mean, I don't think it's the worst
thing in the world to get some new sets of
eyes here and to get some new you know, just
maybe some language and some lingo and some way of
doing things that they just haven't been accustomed to, because,
like I said, this is a group, a coaching staff
group that has been together for a very very long time.
(04:15):
And I'm not gonna sit here and say complacency setting
because I don't believe it did at all. Like they
are not a complacent group. But when you keep having
the same message and when you keep preaching the same thing,
you know, sometimes it can get a little bit stale.
And I'm not saying that happen in this situation, but
I do think it can be beneficial to just have
a different voice and to have maybe a different way
(04:36):
of looking at things.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
What's the line or what's the balance between the department
that Jeremiah Randall is running, an athletic training staff and
everybody that's under his watch and his day to day
duties and handling the injuries and then the coming back
from injuries, and the actual medical staff and the doctors
and those doing the imaging and making the diagnosis and
things like that. Because there's more to it than just
it's all by no means, is it all on Jeremiah.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Oh No, it's not. It's not. It's not just all
on Jeremia Randall. This is like a holistic problem that
you know, they've probably made some changes. They probably made
some changes in the season that we don't even know
about and we probably will never know about, just in
terms of like how they do different things, and maybe
in terms of imaging, in terms of you know, timelines
of how they maybe they're you know, their standards of
(05:22):
care of how they take care of certain injuries. I'm
sure they've made some changes. To put it all on
the athletic trainer is misguided, but you know, I do
think again, it's the same Jeremia Randall has been with
the team force twenty fifteen. He spent ten years as
their trainer. Like, I don't think medicine has I mean,
I'm sure medicine has evolved a little bit since then.
(05:42):
You know, I'm not a doctor, so I don't want
to play one on the radio, but I'm sure like
methods and ways of doing things, that's been different in
those ten years. And again maybe a different set of eyes,
a different set of you know, voice, a different voice
would help. But this is not just a fire as
a trainer and everything's fixed like they've again and just
(06:03):
in the same way, like like firing the hitting coaches
is not just a fix like they've This is there's
more to it, Like they've got to evaluate personnel, they've
got to evaluate roster construction, they've got to evaluate processes
of return to play, things like that maybe the strength staff.
You look at the strength of conditioning kind of what
they're giving these guys to do in the off season,
Like it's a holistic thing here that's not just going
(06:25):
to get solved by one or two names departing.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Well, we're talking about all of the departures, and you
mentioned the first I guess wave of information coming from
inside the Astros organization is that there would not be
a change at GM and there would not be a
change at manager. Your thoughts on those positions staying where
they're going to be, and also how much does the
assistant GM factor into you know, that decision and everything
(06:51):
moving forward and what's going to end up end up
being a very pivotal and interesting offseason. It seems like
we always say that, but this one really feels like
that's going to be the case.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Well, look, I'm here to say for the last week
and a half, there's been a lot of uncertainty in
that building as to who was going to continue in
what roles. There was a lot of uncertainly about Dana
Brown's future, a lot of uncertainly about Joe Spotts future.
This was not a situation where they just like, oh,
like everyone's you know, they're making too much out of this,
Like we like no, no, no, no, Like there were people
(07:20):
in the building that did not know, and it was
up to you know, the one person that has authority
over everything over there, and you know, Jim Crane decided
that he wants to keep both of those guys. They
both are under contract through twenty twenty six. I think
the interesting thing now that you know they have to
hire at least three coaches, you know, Joe's Spotts contract
(07:41):
is only through twenty twenty six. Like you kind of
get into the college football recruiting thing. Remember how like
Lane Duck coaches can never recruit right because you'll get
negatively recruited and things like that. Like I do wonder
how that's going to impact their search for coaches, Like
how many coaches you know, want to come work for
a manager that's only under contract for one year. So
(08:03):
there's a lot of layers here, and it's you know,
maybe just scratching the surfaces to you know, some things
that are going on. But yeah, I mean they've you know,
they're under contract, and it didn't surprise me just in
a vacuum that they both came back because I think
I've talked about it on here. You know, I don't
think you can blame either of those guys specifically for
(08:24):
this team not missing, for this team not making the playoffs,
but there was certainly some some some tense.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Days over there within the last week you were asking
about you know, I don't know who would come to
work for a Lane Duck manager. I would say a
very ambitious coach. They want to look at it as
an opportunity, I guess, right.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
I mean sure, but like how often does that happen? Right? Yeah,
we're like hotsha, Like this isn't This isn't like U
of H going to hire some like twenty two year
old Cliff Kingsbury disciple to come be their OC and
then when Willie Fritz bottoms out, they can just elevate him.
That's it's not really like that sort of thing. But yeah,
(09:05):
I mean, look, there's only so many of these jobs available,
Like they're gonna find coaches. Don't worry about it. But
I just think I just think that adds another layer
of complexity that maybe didn't need to be there.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Interesting stuff for the Astros and interesting stuff around major
League Baseball that we're always keeping an eye on as
are you, Chandler. We appreciate the time. We'll look forward
to more of your good stuff in the athletic and
we'll catch up again soon.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
I was at the Rockets game last side is reached
Shepherd really that team's point guard.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
I was gonna ask you if you had any thoughts
on the Rockets or the Texans before we let you go.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Had is so skinny. Oh my god, he's he's so good.
Though thom Thompson's better than him, but like, oh my goodness,
Had's very skinny in person.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Wow, that's a little hot take from a chandler on
the way it bounces around, dunks, the ball, passes, the
ball does things we don't often see.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
But probably not better than Durant.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
But that's okay.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
We got a whole season figure it out.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
They should let him run the point.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
We have already talked about that saverious two observation with
Reed Shepherd on the court. I do think other players
are actually running the point. He's technically the point guard,
but we're in positionless NBA now, he's the shooting guard.
He runs down the court. When somebody else brings it up,
he hangs out behind the three point line, runs around
without the ball and hopes they find him for an
open three. I think we'll see a lot of that
this year.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
There you go, that's kind of like what he did Kentucky. Right.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
Uh, he actually did even more there for his one
season there and remarkably turn that into you know, the
number three overall pick in the draft. But you know,
in the SEC it just means more.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
That guy was a number three overall pick in the draft. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
It's good stuff, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
I need to brush up on some NBA.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Damn Well, baseball season isn't obviously over, and really it
will never end with the meetings going on, and there
will be major changes this offseason. I'm sure we'll need
to check in on the free agent status of Kyle
Tucker and Alex Bregman in a couple of weeks for sure.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
All right, thanks guys.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Chandeler Roam of the Athletic here on Sports Talk seven
ninety will react to what he had to say and
more when we wind down the two o'clock hour. Coming
up next the eight on Sports Talk seven ninety
It is the A team Sports Talk seven to ninety
wex ac Cole Thompson with you on a Thursday edition
of the program and joined as promised by Chandler Rome
of the Athletic So Chandler, I don't think that. I
don't think a lot of these moves the astros made
are surprising so much as the fact that maybe we
(00:26):
weren't expecting all of them to be made this offseason.
Is that, like a is that a fair assessment of
what's gone on with all of these firings?
Speaker 2 (00:34):
If you will, well, I think you had to know
changes were coming, especially when you know they can paint
it how they want, but taking a week to decide
whether you're going to bring your manager or GM back,
that's the first sign that things are probably there's some
uneasiness and some tension and some things that need to
(00:55):
be resolved in the organization. So once I made the
decision that Dana Brown and Joe Spott we're going to
continue in their roles, you know, you kind of knew
that they couldn't just run it back as it was
both on the personnel side and you know, on the
coaching staff and the staff side, So you know, I've
kind of said my piece about the offense and about
(01:15):
hitting coaches in general. You know, look, they have a
lot of guys on the team that swing a lot.
They have a lot of guys on the team that
chase outside the strike zone a lot. They have a
lot of guys with a similar offensive profile. And when
they got hit with a bunch of injuries this year
to the guys that are not that profile, you saw
what happened. So you know, is it is bringing in
(01:40):
two new hitting coaches going to just completely revitalize the offense.
I don't believe. So. I think maybe what I've took
more from the moves today is, you know, you look
at Troy Snicker, Alex Sindron, Michael Collins, and Jeremiah Randall,
even the head trainer. You know, they've all been with
the team since at least twenty eighteen. It's a it's
(02:01):
a group that is very much the same. Like, not
much has changed here other than you know, the couple
managers and the GM office has changed, but the coaching
staff and the philosophies and the voices have stayed the same.
I wonder, honestly, if they were just looking to shake
it up a little bit like, see if a different voice,
see if you know, a different set of eyes, a
(02:21):
fresh set of eyes can maybe help them unlock some stuff.
But you know, that's kind of the main thing I
took away from it. I'm not sitting here saying that
they're going to go hire two hitting coaches and they're
going to lead the league in ops next year. It's
it's more than that, Like, it's not just as that
bunch of a quick fix.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
And the other part of it with that, you are
who you are, and these are the players that were
acquired over the years or developed over the years. How
much I'm very hesitant to blame hitting coaches the ones
that get fired mid season, it's even worse, it's it's
usually not on them for the vast majority of the
issues that you have. But is it more about and
I talked about this last second, It's just more about situation,
(03:00):
hitting decisions made with the bat, that even hitters who
have a certain profile can adapt to two strike hitting,
hitting behind runners, making more contact things like that.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
I mean, sure they can. They can implement all these
you know, new philosophies and new rules and things like
that of doing stuff different when you two strikes doing
stuff different when they're second, third, one out. But at
the end of the day, like the hitting coaches aren't
going up there and like actually executing. They can say
all they want, Like my pushback this whole time has
been do you guys not think that Troy Snicker or
(03:32):
Alex sin Tron, like sat Yiner dieas down at one point,
like hey, you need to stop chasing at everything outside
the strike zone, or like they've sat people down and
like they know what these guys as shortcomings are. It's
just it didn't get fixed. And I don't know how
much of that you can put on the player. I
don't know how much of that you caut on the coach.
I think there's a fair serving of both that deserve blame.
(03:54):
But yeah, I mean, I don't think it's the worst
thing in the world to get some new sets of
eyes here and to get some new you know, just
maybe some language and some lingo and some way of
doing things that they just haven't been accustomed to, because,
like I said, this is a group, a coaching staff
group that has been together for a very very long time.
(04:15):
And I'm not gonna sit here and say complacency setting
because I don't believe it did at all. Like they
are not a complacent group. But when you keep having
the same message and when you keep preaching the same thing,
you know, sometimes it can get a little bit stale.
And I'm not saying that happen in this situation, but
I do think it can be beneficial to just have
a different voice and to have maybe a different way
(04:36):
of looking at things.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
What's the line or what's the balance between the department
that Jeremiah Randall is running, an athletic training staff and
everybody that's under his watch and his day to day
duties and handling the injuries and then the coming back
from injuries, and the actual medical staff and the doctors
and those doing the imaging and making the diagnosis and
things like that. Because there's more to it than just
it's all by no means, is it all on Jeremiah.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Oh No, it's not. It's not. It's not just all
on Jeremia Randall. This is like a holistic problem that
you know, they've probably made some changes. They probably made
some changes in the season that we don't even know
about and we probably will never know about, just in
terms of like how they do different things, and maybe
in terms of imaging, in terms of you know, timelines
of how they maybe they're you know, their standards of
(05:22):
care of how they take care of certain injuries. I'm
sure they've made some changes. To put it all on
the athletic trainer is misguided, but you know, I do
think again, it's the same Jeremia Randall has been with
the team force twenty fifteen. He spent ten years as
their trainer. Like, I don't think medicine has I mean,
I'm sure medicine has evolved a little bit since then.
(05:42):
You know, I'm not a doctor, so I don't want
to play one on the radio, but I'm sure like
methods and ways of doing things, that's been different in
those ten years. And again maybe a different set of eyes,
a different set of you know, voice, a different voice
would help. But this is not just a fire as
a trainer and everything's fixed like they've again and just
(06:03):
in the same way, like like firing the hitting coaches
is not just a fix like they've This is there's
more to it, Like they've got to evaluate personnel, they've
got to evaluate roster construction, they've got to evaluate processes
of return to play, things like that maybe the strength staff.
You look at the strength of conditioning kind of what
they're giving these guys to do in the off season,
Like it's a holistic thing here that's not just going
(06:25):
to get solved by one or two names departing.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Well, we're talking about all of the departures, and you
mentioned the first I guess wave of information coming from
inside the Astros organization is that there would not be
a change at GM and there would not be a
change at manager. Your thoughts on those positions staying where
they're going to be, and also how much does the
assistant GM factor into you know, that decision and everything
(06:51):
moving forward and what's going to end up end up
being a very pivotal and interesting offseason. It seems like
we always say that, but this one really feels like
that's going to be the case.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Well, look, I'm here to say for the last week
and a half, there's been a lot of uncertainty in
that building as to who was going to continue in
what roles. There was a lot of uncertainly about Dana
Brown's future, a lot of uncertainly about Joe Spotts future.
This was not a situation where they just like, oh,
like everyone's you know, they're making too much out of this,
Like we like no, no, no, no, Like there were people
(07:20):
in the building that did not know, and it was
up to you know, the one person that has authority
over everything over there, and you know, Jim Crane decided
that he wants to keep both of those guys. They
both are under contract through twenty twenty six. I think
the interesting thing now that you know they have to
hire at least three coaches, you know, Joe's Spotts contract
(07:41):
is only through twenty twenty six. Like you kind of
get into the college football recruiting thing. Remember how like
Lane Duck coaches can never recruit right because you'll get
negatively recruited and things like that. Like I do wonder
how that's going to impact their search for coaches, Like
how many coaches you know, want to come work for
a manager that's only under contract for one year. So
(08:03):
there's a lot of layers here, and it's you know,
maybe just scratching the surfaces to you know, some things
that are going on. But yeah, I mean they've you know,
they're under contract, and it didn't surprise me just in
a vacuum that they both came back because I think
I've talked about it on here. You know, I don't
think you can blame either of those guys specifically for
(08:24):
this team not missing, for this team not making the playoffs,
but there was certainly some some some tense.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Days over there within the last week you were asking
about you know, I don't know who would come to
work for a Lane Duck manager. I would say a
very ambitious coach. They want to look at it as
an opportunity, I guess, right.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
I mean sure, but like how often does that happen? Right? Yeah,
we're like hotsha, Like this isn't This isn't like U
of H going to hire some like twenty two year
old Cliff Kingsbury disciple to come be their OC and
then when Willie Fritz bottoms out, they can just elevate him.
That's it's not really like that sort of thing. But yeah,
(09:05):
I mean, look, there's only so many of these jobs available,
Like they're gonna find coaches. Don't worry about it. But
I just think I just think that adds another layer
of complexity that maybe didn't need to be there.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Interesting stuff for the Astros and interesting stuff around major
League Baseball that we're always keeping an eye on as
are you, Chandler. We appreciate the time. We'll look forward
to more of your good stuff in the athletic and
we'll catch up again soon.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
I was at the Rockets game last side is reached
Shepherd really that team's point guard.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
I was gonna ask you if you had any thoughts
on the Rockets or the Texans before we let you go.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Had is so skinny. Oh my god, he's he's so good.
Though thom Thompson's better than him, but like, oh my goodness,
Had's very skinny in person.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Wow, that's a little hot take from a chandler on
the way it bounces around, dunks, the ball, passes, the
ball does things we don't often see.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
But probably not better than Durant.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
But that's okay.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
We got a whole season figure it out.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
They should let him run the point.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
We have already talked about that saverious two observation with
Reed Shepherd on the court. I do think other players
are actually running the point. He's technically the point guard,
but we're in positionless NBA now, he's the shooting guard.
He runs down the court. When somebody else brings it up,
he hangs out behind the three point line, runs around
without the ball and hopes they find him for an
open three. I think we'll see a lot of that
this year.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
There you go, that's kind of like what he did Kentucky. Right.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
Uh, he actually did even more there for his one
season there and remarkably turn that into you know, the
number three overall pick in the draft. But you know,
in the SEC it just means more.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
That guy was a number three overall pick in the draft. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
It's good stuff, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
I need to brush up on some NBA.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Damn Well, baseball season isn't obviously over, and really it
will never end with the meetings going on, and there
will be major changes this offseason. I'm sure we'll need
to check in on the free agent status of Kyle
Tucker and Alex Bregman in a couple of weeks for sure.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
All right, thanks guys.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Chandeler Roam of the Athletic here on Sports Talk seven
ninety will react to what he had to say and
more when we wind down the two o'clock hour. Coming
up next the eight on Sports Talk seven ninety
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.