{"id":828811,"date":"2026-10-14T02:09:50","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T02:09:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/828811\/"},"modified":"2026-10-14T02:09:50","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T02:09:50","slug":"mariners-interviewing-joe-espada-with-his-astros-future-in-limbo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/828811\/","title":{"rendered":"Mariners interviewing Joe Espada with his Astros future in limbo"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Astros\u2019 current manager is interviewing for a divisional rival.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In one of the strangest situations in baseball, the Mariners requested permission to interview Astros manager Joe Espada, and Houston granted it, per <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Feinsand\/status\/2110023001240404425\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">MLB.com<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>The bizarre situation comes as the Astros are uncertain about nearly everything that involves the team\u2019s future, with Espada\u2019s contract set to expire at the end of October.<\/p>\n<p>It would certainly seem like the Astros intend to let Espada go and head into the 2027 season with a new manager if they\u2019re letting him interview with a division rival.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49707602;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"   data-modal-image=\"41312218\" width=\"883\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/houston-astros-manager-joe-espada-143215097_c4049d.jpg\" alt=\"Houston Astros manager Joe Espada watches from the field during the Wildcard round against the Chicago White Sox.\" class=\"wp-image-41312218\"\/>Houston Astros manager Joe Espada looks on during the first inning of game two of the Wildcard round against the Chicago White Sox for the 2026 MLB Playoffs at Daikin Park in Houston, Texas, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n<p>But Seattle could be playing some games here, too.<\/p>\n<p>By requesting permission to talk to Espada just before his contract runs out, the Mariners may be signaling that he\u2019s in demand, pressuring Houston to re-sign him before someone else does.<\/p>\n<p>Seattle is coming off a terrible 2026 season and <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/09\/27\/sports\/dan-wilson-out-as-mariners-manager-following-disastrous-season-one-year-after-reaching-alcs\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">fired manager Dan Wilson<\/a> after going 76-86 despite entering the season among the American League favorites.<\/p>\n<p>Houston had a tough go in their own right this season. The Astros won 81 games \u2014\u00a0good enough to win the AL West, but were swept by the White Sox in the wild-card round \u2014 and faced internal upheaval midseason.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Astros<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/08\/24\/sports\/dana-brown-out-as-astros-gm-with-team-fighting-for-playoff-spot\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> fired general manager Dana Brown <\/a>right after the trade deadline as ownership was in disagreement with the front office on the direction of the team.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"   data-modal-image=\"41312236\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/seattle-mariners-center-fielder-julio-142135274.jpg\" alt=\"Seattle Mariners center fielder Julio Rodr\u00edguez stands on the field with his hands on his hips.\" class=\"wp-image-41312236\"\/>Seattle Mariners center fielder Julio Rodr\u00edguez (44) looks on after the bottom of the eighth inning of a baseball game against the Houston Astros, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026, in Seattle. AP Photo\/Kevin Ng<\/p>\n<p>Brown had tried to trade reliever Bryan Abreu for Twins outfielder Trevor Larnach, but ownership killed those plans and fired him weeks later as his contract was set to expire in October, like Espada\u2019s.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Espada took over for Dusty Baker after the 2023 season and had a 256-229 regular season record but went 0-4 in the postseason.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Astros\u2019 current manager is interviewing for a divisional rival.\u00a0 In one of the strangest situations in baseball,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":828812,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2392],"tags":[5,54,620,4,619,65,3235,185],"class_list":["post-828811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-seattle-mariners","tag-baseball","tag-houston-astros","tag-mariners","tag-mlb","tag-seattle","tag-seattle-mariners","tag-seattlemariners","tag-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117436837458738137","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=828811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/828812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=828811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=828811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=828811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}