The Astros’ search for a new general manager is starting to take shape, and two more names have surfaced in the mix.
Royals senior vice president Scott Sharp and Braves assistant general manager Ben Sestanovich are candidates for Houston’s GM opening, according to Chandler Rome of The Athletic. They join a group of previously identified options that Bob Nightengale of USA Today and Rome linked to the job earlier in the day: Matt Kleine, Josh Barfield and Randy Flores.
Sharp, 54, has spent the past 20 years in Kansas City, rising through the organization’s baseball operations side before becoming a senior vice president under baseball operations president J.J. Picollo.
He has worked across multiple areas of baseball operations with the Royals, and his name has come up often in recent years when other clubs have looked for someone to lead a front office. Sharp has interviewed with at least the Mets, Giants and Rockies.
Sestanovich comes from a different background. He played at Harvard and pitched for the Crimson in 2011 before moving into baseball operations with the Padres in player development after college. In 2019, he joined Atlanta as an assistant general manager under Alex Anthopoulos, and he is one of five assistant general managers in the Braves’ front office.
Rome reported that Houston could have its GM decision completed before the end of the World Series. The club also still needs to hire a manager after moving on from Joe Espada at the end of the season.
Houston made another staffing move as well, with Rome reporting the team is hiring Spencer Medick as its director of pitching. Medick will work in a non-uniform role overseeing the organization’s pitching development. He had been the pitching coach for the Yankees’ Triple-A team in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
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