Jim Crane doesn't shy away from putting his finger on the scale when baseball decisions are being made with his Houston Astros , but the owner says his new general manager Randy Flores will "have full authority" when it comes to shaping a team that hasn't won a game in the postseason since 2023.
The 72-year-old Crane oversaw baseball operations after firing general manager Dana Brown in August. He did the same in the transition period after not bringing back general manager James Click following the 2022 World Series championship. Now, he says Flores will be in charge, but he'll continue to monitor everything going on with his baseball team.
"What I've done in the past is when things needed some help or I was asked for help, I pitched in a number of times in trying to retain guys or trying to get a guy to move over at the trade deadline. I'll continue in that area," Crane said at Flores' introductory news conference Monday at Daikin Park. "I'll stay focused on the business side. I'm pretty hands on in that area and I'll sit in on the meetings and get a feel for what's going on and how things are working, but nothing's changed with what I do."
As evidence of his involvement, Crane says the team, which also still needs to replace manager Joe Espada , already had interviewed "a few" managerial candidates before Flores was hired, although he says his new general manager now will take over that process.
When it came to the Flores hire, which took nearly 10 weeks, Crane says he interviewed "close to eight or nine" candidates before landing on Flores, who asked to be called by his nickname "Flo" instead of Randy, before adding, "Jim can call me whatever he wants, by the way, just to be clear on that."
Flores inherits a team that has seen its win total decline in each of the past four seasons. The Astros went 81-81 last season, the franchise's worst record in a full season since 2014, but Crane made it clear, while he expects roster changes, he isn't preparing for a drastic rebuild.
"I don't think it's going to be a complete teardown at all. I think we've got enough talent to work with and we've got to make some good decisions and make some changes," Crane said. "(We've got to) solidify a better lineup and a better team than we had last year. We did make the playoffs, which is always the goal, but we have very high standards here, so I'm sure these guys will get together and make some good decisions and you'll see some changes made with the roster, surely."
Randy Flores addresses the media alongside Houston Astros owner Jim Crane after being introduced as the organization's new general manager during a press conference in Houston, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026. (Jason Fochtman/Houston Chronicle)
Flores welcomes the pressure that comes with retooling a roster, especially as leader of a team that entered the 2026 season with the seventh-highest payroll, while the Cardinals had the ninth-lowest.
"You can look at the top lines of payroll, you can look at revenue, you can look at fan attendance. It's real here," Flores said. "There's a thriving and vibrant fan base that fuels this machine, and we spend. I think with spending, the stakes of those decisions are enormous and I welcome those stakes. Jim also mentioned that we need to improve. We clearly know that the team right now as is with last year's record is not totally where we want to be. Yes, we got in the postseason, but we have to improve, we have to push forward and I look forward to leading that process."
Even with the franchise experiencing a steady decline on the field, Crane doesn't expect what he spends on the roster to change much.
"We'll always stay positive on the payroll, we always want the best players, we always have stretched and tried to obtain all the best players we can and we've got the ability to run the payroll when we need to run the payroll," Crane said.
The owner will expect his new general manager to do the most with the money he's given, something that came back to bite Flores' predecessor when Brown didn't get results from high-priced free agent pitcher Tatsuya Imai or expected value from contract extensions like the one given to Cristian Javier shortly after Brown took the reins.
Crane feels positive his new hire will make the right decisions, even likening Flores' experience to his own in the freight and shipping business, which Crane says he worked his way through all phases of the industry before becoming a billionaire.
Flores got here after pitching professionally for 15 seasons, including eight years as a big-league reliever, before going back to school get his master's degree and starting a company, OnDeck Digital, that captured and provided game video to help players improve and scouts and recruiters to better evaluate talent. He went on to spend 11 years in the St. Louis Cardinals' front office, first as the organization's scouting director, then as assistant general manager.
"His résumé is so complete that you very rarely find a guy that's worked in every single department," Crane said. "I started on the dock in my business and made it to the top, so I think it's very important to know how everything functions and what those people are doing and how they're doing it and determining if they're doing it well or not doing it well. I think the thing that impressed me most about him is that he's done all those jobs and also playing. A lot of the GMs never played professional baseball and I think that's a huge advantage for a GM to have the playing career that he's had because you can draw on those types of things. You can read a guy when he's nervous, you can feel it in the dugout. I think he's really, really well-rounded and I think he'll do a great job. I know he'll do a great job."
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This article originally published at Houston Astros owner Jim Crane says new general manager Randy Flores will 'have full authority' .
