Milwaukee Brewers executive Matt Kleine emerging as candidate for Houston Astros' GM job

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Brewers assistant general manager Matt Kleine is reportedly a candidate for the Astros' GM job and was spotted last with owner Jim Crane at the Houston Sports Hall of Fame induction. (Courtesy MLB Network)

While the Houston Astros have kept their search for a new general manager relatively quiet, at least one potential candidate has visited Houston during the process.

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Milwaukee Brewers assistant general manager Matt Kleine accompanied Astros owner Jim Crane to last week's Houston Sports Hall of Fame induction event, with KHOU 11 posting video Tuesday of the two walking together on the red carpet. USA Today reported earlier Tuesday that Kleine had emerged as a candidate in the Astros' search.

The Astros have been without a general manager since they dismissed Dana Brown in late August. The team finished the season with a small group of executives - assistant general managers Charles Cook, Gavin Dickey and Connor Huff, and senior advisor Jeff Bagwell - handling baseball operations duties under oversight from Crane.

Kleine is not believed to be the only potential candidate for the job who has visited Houston during the search and it's not clear how many candidates the Astros are considering. The Athletic reported Tuesday that two other executives, White Sox assistant general manager Josh Barfield and Cardinals assistant general manager Randy Flores, have also received interest from the Astros.

The Astros have offered no timeline to hire a new general manager. They are also without a manager after deciding not to bring back Joe Espada after his three seasons in the role. Completing a GM hire first could allow that person to lead or be part of the search for the team's next manager, though it's unclear if that is a priority for Houston.

In August, after Brown's dismissal, Crane said that experience running a baseball operations department would be "valuable but not necessary" in selecting a new GM. Several reported candidates reflect that.

Kleine has worked for 20 seasons with the Brewers, starting as an associate scout and in roles such as coordinator of advance scouting and director of baseball operations. Before that, Kleine was briefly a media relations intern with the Astros. Milwaukee promoted Kleine to assistant general manager after the 2023 season.

Kleine has worked for 20 seasons with the Brewers, starting as an associate scout and in roles such as coordinator of advance scouting and director of baseball operations. The Brewers promoted Kleine to assistant general manager after the 2023 season.

Barfield just finished his third full season as an assistant general manager with the White Sox, who hired him from Arizona, where he was the director of player development. Barfield attended Klein High School, just north of Houston, and was drafted from there in 2001 by the Padres.

Flores, who pitched parts of eight seasons in the majors, was hired in 2015 by the Cardinals as director of scouting and promoted to assistant general manager by St. Louis after the 2018 season.

Crane also indicated in August that the Astros, who finished 81-81 this season and lost in the wild-card round of the playoffs, would examine the success of some teams around MLB carrying smaller payrolls.

"I think you're watching some pretty good teams that don't have big payrolls, so that's certainly something we'll study very hard," Crane said at the time. "We were able to add as we went along and keep the team in a winning mode, and we're still in a winning mode. So I think we're willing to make some adjustments, look at how other people do things. There's always something to learn."

The Brewers, who are in the World Series for the second time in team history, have made the playoffs in eight of the past nine seasons and won 103 games this season after carrying the majors' 12th-lowest opening day payroll, according to the Associated Press. The White Sox, who had the third-lowest opening day payroll, per the AP, had a 24-win jump and eliminated the Astros in the wild-card round.

Houston made the playoffs this year for the 11th time in 13 seasons but did so while posting a declining regular-season win total for the fourth consecutive year. The wild-card round sweep by Chicago left the Astros without a playoff win since 2023. The Astros announced Oct. 14 that they would not bring back Espada, who was in his final year under contract, leaving both the GM and manager roles vacant.

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This article originally published at Milwaukee Brewers executive Matt Kleine emerging as candidate for Houston Astros' GM job.

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