Astros bring back former catcher Brad Ausmus as their manager after Joe Espada exit

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Astros bring back former catcher Brad Ausmus as their manager after Joe Espada exit

2026-11-12 01:43 Last Updated At：01:50

HOUSTON (AP) — Brad Ausmus was named manager of the Houston Astros on Wednesday.

New general manager Randy Flores made the announcement, which brings the former catcher back to the place where he spent 10 years of his playing career.

“We are thrilled to welcome Brad back to the Astros organization,” Flores said in a news release. “Brad impressed us throughout the interview process, demonstrating the leadership, energy, and expertise critical to driving a winning culture both on and off the field. I am excited to work alongside Brad and happy to have him back in an Astros uniform.”

Ausmus said he is excited to return to Houston.

“The Astros and the city of Houston have been a huge part of my life, and I’m thrilled to create a new chapter as the team’s manager,” he said. “I’d like to thank Randy and the entire Astros organization for this opportunity, and I can’t wait to get to work.”

He replaces Joe Espada, whose contract wasn't renewed after the Astros were swept by the Chicago White Sox in a Wild Card series. Ausmus is the 21st manager in franchise history.

Former St. Louis Cardinals star Albert Pujols, former Astros player Morgan Ensberg and Texas Rangers bench coach Luis Urueta were among other candidates Houston considered before landing on Ausmus.

His hiring leaves the Angels as the only team without a manager after they fired Kurt Suzuki following just one season. The Mariners hired Jason Kanzler last week to fill the role from which Dan Wilson stepped down at season's end.

This is the third different managerial job for Ausmus, who managed the Angels in 2019 and spent 2014-17 leading the Tigers. He most recently worked as the bench coach for the Yankees from 2024 through last season.

The 57-year-old Ausmus went 72-90 in his one season with the Angels and was 314-332 in four seasons in Detroit. His best season came in his first with the Tigers when they went 90-72 to win the AL Central before being swept by the Orioles in the AL Division Series.

He has also worked in MLB front offices, spending 2011-13 as a special assistant to baseball operations for the Padres and 2018 as a special assistant to the GM for the Angels.

Ausmus spent 18 years as a major league catcher. He played for the Astros from 1997-98 and 2001-08. He won three Gold Gloves while with the Astros and was named to the All-Star team in 1999 with the Tigers. He also played for the Padres and the Dodgers before retiring after the 2010 season.

He played 1,971 MLB games, including 1,259 with the Astros, the most by a catcher in franchise history.

Ausmus played in 35 career postseasons games, all of them with the Astros. He was the team's catcher when the Astros reached the World Series in 2005 for the first time. He had a big home run earlier in that playoff run when his shot tied the game with two outs in the ninth inning of Game 4 of the NLDS against the Braves that the Astros went on to win 7-6 in 18 innings.

He was a 48th round pick of the Yankees in 1987. He attended Dartmouth while playing in the minors for the Yankees, graduating in 1991 with a bachelor's degree in government.

See AP’s full MLB coverage here

Spain's first general strike in 14 years brings clashing social and political desires to the fore

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Millions of Spain’s workers are striking Wednesday to demand that the government remedy the nation’s housing crisis less than three weeks before a national election that could catapult the far right to power.

Spain’s first general strike in 14 years is expected to cause delays to the widely used public transport system and lead to the slowdown or shuttering of businesses, factories and shops across the eurozone’s fourth largest economy.

Between workers, activists, politicians and ordinary Spaniards, the groups have very different interests in Wednesday's walkout.

The average rent for Spain has almost doubled in the last 10 years, eating into household budgets and angering voters.

Public anger over housing reached a boiling point following the nationally televised eviction of an 87-year-old woman from her home in Madrid last month. The subsequent death of Maricarmen, as the woman became known, caused even more indignation and solidified her as a symbol of Spaniards who feel they pay too much on rent and can’t even dream of homeownership.

Housing activists leveraged the uproar over Maricarmen's eviction to call for the general strike. They soon won the backing of Spain's two main unions, UGT and CCOO.

The housing activists want several measures, including the elimination of tourist apartments, a crackdown on real estate speculation and protection for renters in the form of automatic renewals of leases.

The UGT and CCOO unions are demanding more government intervention in the housing market and a new minimum wage agreement through talks with the business owners' association.

The strike’s official slogan is “Salaries. Housing. Prices.”

The nationwide protests over the eviction of Maricarmen propelled Spain’s government to push through emergency measures to limit evictions and help tenants, but right-wing parties in the Parliament refused to ratify them on the grounds they would provoke a flight of properties from the rental market.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez responded by doubling down politically and called the election on Oct. 5, hoping to earn four more years in power for his left-wing coalition.

But then came a brutal high-speed train collision — Spain's second deadly rail disaster of the year. That collision, which killed 69 people, has dominated Spanish news and created a drag on Sánchez's campaign just when he had hoped to build momentum.

The strike, says analyst Oriol Bartomeus, is an opportunity for Sánchez's Socialists and the other parties on the Left that he will need to remain in power.

“The Socialists need for the strike to be a success and for there not to be any violence so that the election campaign can swing back to being about housing, back in the framework of Maricarmen,” Bartomeus, a professor of political science at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, told The Associated Press.

On Thursday, the government will again try to have a reduced interim Parliament ratify the two housing decrees that the full lower chamber rejected last month.

Sánchez posted a long video on social media this week, in which he lauded the prior social policies like the 40-hour work week and national health insurance that were the fruit of the workers' movement and the right to strike.

“It wasn’t easy, but they changed Spain,” Sánchez said, while warning that right-wing parties would bring austerity and underfunded social services.

Verónica Martínez, spokesperson for Sumar, the junior member of the government, separately said “the Left needs the workers of this country to mobilize. Rights are first won on the streets and then later in the institution.”

The traditional conservative Popular Party and the far-right Vox are against any government intervention in the housing market other than incentivizing construction of new homes.

They also both argue that the unions are playing politics and trying to help Sánchez stay in office, with months of polling showing voters leaning toward the Right.

“This strike is not a general strike; it is an electoral strike,” Popular Party spokesperson Miguel Tellado said Tuesday. “It is not against the government in power, but rather against the government to be.”

But the right-wing parties, which already have joined forces to govern in some Spanish regions, could benefit from the strike if it descends into street violence, according to Bartomeus.

Strikes can result in hardcore union members pressuring shops and offices into closing. Spain, like other European countries, often has peaceful public protests that radical groups take advantage of to clash with police and destroy property.

“The Popular Party and Vox both want the strike to be a flop and to end in scenes of burning dumpsters and shattered shop windows," Bartomeus said. “That way the next morning they can say, ‘This is chaos and we are coming to establish order.’”