The Astros have been without a general manager since the shocking dismissal of James Crick just days after the club won the World Series. Former Marlins baseball operations president Michael Hill was one of his candidates for the position, according to reports last week. But Jon Heyman of the New York Post reports today that Hill has taken himself out of consideration (twitter Link).
Hill, 51, joined the Marlins in 2002 and will bring a lot of experience to the role. He held various positions, including assistant general manager, general manager, and baseball he president of operations, the latter title he held until his contract. It was not updated after the 2020 season.
Since then, he has served as Senior Vice President of Field Operations for Major League Baseball. He has been involved in the opening of various front his offices over the past few years, including the Angels, Mets, Phillies and now the Astros. However, Heyman reports that Hill is happy with his role in the league and wants to remain until the new rules are implemented. Limit pickoff attempts. A job at Houston alone doesn’t seem to be enough to keep Hill away from overseeing the transition to this new brand of baseball.
That leaves two known candidates linked to the jobs of Braves vice president of scouting Dana Brown and former Giants general manager Bobby Evans. Owner Jim Crane may be considering other players that have yet to be reported, but it looks like Hill could be off the list. Crane himself appears to be leading baseball decision-making since a disagreement with Crick led to the vacancy a few months ago.
