New Houston Astros GM Dana Brown Grinded His Way To The Top

Dana Brown has the distinction of being the only current Black general manager in the major leagues.

The Houston Astros hired Brown on Thursday to conclude their long search for a GM. James Click was fired two days after the Astros beat the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series amidst reports he and owner Jim Crane did not get along well.

However, it would be grossly unfair to suggest Brown got the job primarily because of the color of his skin. The 55-year-old is a baseball man through and through who paid plenty of dues on his way to finally getting a chance to run a franchise’s baseball operations.

After playing collegiately at Seton Hall, Brown began his professional baseball career in 1993 as an amateur area scout for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He was so good at finding amateur talent that the Pirates eventually promoted Brown to a national crosschecking scouting role.

Brown then moved up to the role of scouting director for the Montreal Expos/Washington Nationals franchise from 2001-09. That was followed by a nine-year stint as a special assistant in the Toronto Blue Jays front office from 2010-18.

During the last four seasons, Brown was vice president of scouting for the Atlanta Braves. The Braves happened to beat the Astros in 2021 World Series.

Brown’s resume is impeccable. His talent evaluation skills are excellent. His people skills might be even better.

While Brown had never worked for the Astros, his relationships with Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell obviously carried much weight with Crane. The Hall of Famers are special assistants in Houston’s front office.

Biggio and Brown were teammates at Seton Hall. Bagwell and Brown played together for a summer in the Cape Cod League as collegians.

“He is very analytic savvy,” Crane said of Brown to reporters Thursday. “He’s a great talent evaluator based upon what we’ve seen at the Braves, seasoned at player acquisitions, seasoned at player development and retention. They were often able to extend some of their player contracts.

“He’s got great people skills, excellent communicator and, last but not least, he’s a baseball player and knows baseball in and out and we were very impressed with that.”

Brown and Dusty Baker form just the second Black GM-manager combination in major league history. Ken Williams and Jerry Manuel held those positions with the Chicago White Sox from 1998-2003.

While Brown worked his way up to GM from baseball’s bottom rungs, he is taking over a franchise that is at the top of the sport.

The Astros have played in the last six American League Championship Series. They have won four pennants and two World Series in that span.

The 55-year-old Brown isn’t stepping into a rebuilding situation like most first-time GMs.

“I’m coming to a winning team and a big part of what I want to do is sustain the winning long term,” Brown told reporters. “We want to continue to build, continue to sign good players, continue to develop players and continue the winning success.”