HOUSTON – Dusty Baker has expressed to multiple people inside and outside of the Houston Astros organization that 2023 will be his final season as manager, sources briefed on the matter told The Athletic over the past week.
Baker, who managed this season on a one-year contract that has expired, declined comment when asked by The Athletic if he had told people in the game this was his last season. Houston’s bid for back-to-back World Series titles ended with an 11-4 Game 7 loss to the Texas Rangers in the American League Championship Series on Monday night.
The 74-year-old Baker, who has managed for 26 major-league seasons, has a career 2,183-1,862 regular-season record, along with three pennants and one World Series title. That long-awaited championship came in 2022 with Houston, a team he has managed for the past four years, after being hired to help stabilize the organization in the wake of a sign-stealing scandal that came to light just weeks after the Astros lost the 2019 World Series to the Washington Nationals.
Multiple sources not authorized to speak publicly told The Athletic they think Baker wants to remain in the game in some capacity. So why would Baker not make it more public that he is ready to turn in his permanent perch in the dugout for another role in baseball?
A few reasons. First, Baker didn’t want the attention that would come with a farewell tour, several sources believe. In addition, Baker, who told The Athletic multiple times he was “thinking about” retirement, still has a chance to change his mind. According to multiple sources, this is the first season Baker has talked about leaving managing and getting some time away from the day-to-day grind of the game.
“When he is done managing, I know he has a lot of knowledge to offer an organization,” said Baker’s wife of nearly 30 years, Melissa, who added that her husband hasn’t made a final decision yet. “I know he can help to build a winner. My husband just wants to win and is a winner.”
If Baker does indeed retire, he will end his Astros tenure as one of the franchise’s most successful managers. Baker shepherded a superstar-laden team through turmoil and turnover, handling the animus as only he could, pleading for peace and positivity with a wide smile and soft-spoken charm.
“I told the guys I love them and appreciate their effort, appreciate the way they go about their business,” Baker said when asked at the postgame press conference following Monday’s elimination about his message to this year’s team and his own future. “I don’t know, I haven’t had time to evaluate and think about my future because I’m down the list as far as, like, I’m not that kind of dude. I don’t want to steal the spotlight or anything from these guys. You got to savor what we did, think about how we can get better and then I’ll evaluate my situation in my life. And so, we will see. I’ll talk to my daughter. I’ve got two grandsons, …I really sort of cheated them for my quest …I got two dogs, hunting dogs, a year old, they wouldn’t even know me when I walk in the house because I haven’t been home since February the 10th.”
Baker’s .586 winning percentage trails only A.J. Hinch — the man he replaced — for the highest of any manager in team history. Baker led the team to four consecutive ALCS appearances and appeared in two World Series. He and Hinch are the only managers in team history to win a World Series.
When Houston won the 2021 AL West title, Baker became the first manager in major-league history to win a division title with five different clubs. He is 34-19 in postseason play with the Astros, leaving him fourth on the sport’s all-time list with 57 playoff wins.
Baker’s tenure did feature some difficulty, though. He clashed with former general manager James Click, whom owner Jim Crane hired about a week after bringing Baker aboard as manager in 2020. Though executives and managers around the sport are privy to disagreements, Baker and Click’s differences became public after the manager vetoed Click’s agreed-upon trade for Willson Contreras at the 2022 trade deadline. Crane sided with his manager, demonstrating the divide that had formed between Click and Baker/Crane. Crane “parted ways” with Click after winning the 2022 World Series and hired Dana Brown to replace him.
Throughout this season, Brown openly questioned some of Baker’s lineup decisions, but remained committed to giving his manager autonomy in all on-field matters.
Multiple members of the team’s front office and coaching staff shared skepticism about some of Baker’s decision-making — specifically surrounding sporadic playing time for breakout players Chas McCormick and Yainer Diaz — but Baker held firm in his preference for veteran players.
It’s difficult to argue with the results — Houston won the American League West for the sixth consecutive 162-game season and reached a seventh consecutive ALCS, authoring a furious rally toward the end of September.
Baker, multiple people opined, should be hired as a special assistant for a team —preferably on the West Coast where he resides — or by the Commissioner’s Office as an ambassador to the game.
“Who bridges groups of people more than Dusty?” said one longtime baseball friend, who Baker told of his intention to retire this year. “I mean, he is able to talk to anyone from all walks of life. He is DEI (Diversity, Equality, Inclusion) personified.”
Baker’s legacy is larger-than-life. He has been in baseball since he was drafted by the Atlanta Braves in 1967. He played until 1986 and briefly worked as a stockbroker before he got back into the game as the Giants’ first-base coach in 1988. He played with the late Hank Aaron and beat prostate cancer. His son, Darren, was a batboy on Baker’s team as a 3-year-old, and was forever immortalized during the 2002 World Series when he went to scoop up a bat as San Francisco’s J.T. Snow was trying to score in Game 5. Snow scooped him up in his arms after he touched home plate and brought Darren back to the dugout.
Darren is now 24 and an infielder in the Washington Nationals system. The Nationals and Astros share a spring training complex in West Palm Beach, Fla., which allowed Dusty a firsthand look at his development and treasured times as the father and son were roommates for each of the past two spring trainings.
Darren brought out the lineup card before one Grapefruit League game between the two teams, surprising his father when he emerged from the dugout. In another battle this spring, Darren socked a go-ahead grand slam against his father’s Astros team.
After Darren’s season concluded in late September, he became a more noticeable presence around the Astros, accompanying his father to the team’s final regular-season series in Arizona and throughout the ALCS, perhaps for one final glimpse at Dusty’s managerial career.
(Top photo of Dusty Baker: Daniel Shirey/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
Source link
credite