Drayer: Why Joe Espada is fun, interesting candidate in Mariners’ manager search

The first name to surface as an interviewee in the Seattle Mariners’ managerial hiring process is Houston Astros manager Joe Espada.

MLB.com reported Tuesday morning that Espada is set to meet with the Mariners about the position, and Houston has granted permission for that interview.

Report: Seattle Mariners meeting with Astros’ Joe Espada about manager job

Esapda’s contract with the Astros expires at the end of the month, per MLB.com.

Seattle Sports Mariners insider Shannon Drayer shared her insight on Espada, his time with the Astros, and what makes an interview with the manager of a division rival particularly interesting and likely helpful for Seattle in video you can watch at the top of this post. Below is a transcription of that video. It has been edited for clarity.

Well, this is a fun one. The first name to come out for the Mariners in their search for a manager in terms of an interview is Houston Astros manager Joe Espada.

Is this perhaps a case of keep your friends close and your enemies closer? We’re gonna get into that in just one minute.

But first of all, the candidate.

Espada has managed the Astros for the last three years. There have been two playoff appearances for them, and no playoff wins. And of course the division title was lost by the Astros to the Mariners in 2025, but not all of that has been put at the feet of Espada. Let’s talk a little bit about his experience, and then we’ll get back to that.

Espada has been coaching in Major League Baseball for a long time. He has had different jobs with different organizations and landed with the Astros nine years ago as bench coach for A.J. Hinch and then also was bench coach under Dusty Baker. And when Dusty Baker retired, he took over as manager. So, a lot of good experience next to two very good managers in the game – two tacticians, if you will. One very analytical in Hinch. One who would manage the analytics, but also had the experience behind him, and yes, a little bit of feel with Dusty Baker. So, I like the variety of experience that he has had.

While Espada has managed the Astros, as we mentioned, it hasn’t been their best of times the last three years. But nobody is really laying that at his feet.

The Astros have been through a lot of changes in that time. They have faced budgetary restrictions, self-imposed, of course, that they didn’t have when they were in their heyday. They also had some roster challenges. They haven’t been as strong a roster as they were when they were building up and then going through their big run.

They are on the downside right now, and part of that is natural and part of it were some moves that perhaps were not beneficial to the team. And for that, Dana Brown, who was their general manager, was let go in the middle of the season. So, a lot of that speaks more to what he was doing and others were doing than what the manager was doing.

I would also throw in there the organization, while not in disarray, has made a ton of moves the last few years behind the scenes getting away from some of the analytics and really gutting the international department, which was responsible for some of their greatest players. Think Jose Alutve, think Yordan Alvarez; that was a strength that they had, and they’re doing things a little bit differently. So, those things go on well beyond what a manager can control.

What have we seen from the Astros teams that have been out in the field? The last three years they’ve been competitive, I think, would be the best way to put it. Were they great? No. Were they bad? No. But they have certainly been competitive.

Let’s get back to that friends and enemies thing, and I think that this is the most interesting aspect of today’s news. Now, something that was missing the last time the Mariners went through a managerial hire was other candidates, bringing in a wealth of candidates to interview. When you interview, you get information about your team. And who knows more about this team from the other side than your division rival?

How did they attack Mariners pitching? How did they attack Mariners hitting? Were there patterns they were seeing? How would he make this team better?

And if they were to hire him, that would go beyond the interview process. Obviously, he knows a lot about the players that the Mariners have because he has been on the other side of them, some of them from the day that they’ve gotten into the big leagues to present day. He has extensive knowledge of the plans to get every hitter out and to attack every pitcher on this staff, and that is a look that I think that the Mariners really need – a little bit of reverse scouting, if you will. So, great information to be had there.

Where will it go? We are still very, very early in the process, but for a Tuesday morning, this is an interesting and a fun one.

Seattle Mariners news and more

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