James Click, right, and Jose Altuve celebrate after Houston won the World Series on Saturday. Click will not be given a new contract and is out as the Astros general manager. David J. Phillip/Associated Press
Astros General Manager James Click will not be given a new contract, a highly unusual move that the team announced Friday – just six days after Houston won the World Series.
Click was hired from the Tampa Bay Rays before the 2020 season and appeared increasingly distant from owner Jim Crane. The 44-year-old Click did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
It’s believed to be the first change in general manager following a World Series title since 1947, when the Yankees’ Larry MacPhail was replaced by George Weiss.
Click said Tuesday at the general managers meetings in Las Vegas that his contract expired Oct. 31 and the situation had not been addressed. He also said that he was given little advance notice of Wednesday’s news conference, where the Astros announced that Manager Dusty Baker was coming back on a one-year contract.
Click wouldn’t respond Tuesday when asked by reporters whether he had been offered a one-year contract. And he answered indirectly when asked whether autonomy over baseball operations was an issue.
“All of us always want to have areas of responsibility in areas that we can call our own, in areas that we can take pride in,” he said. “Inevitably in any of these jobs, these decisions are multimillion-dollar decisions, and ownership is going to be involved. It’s just a question of degree.”
Crane was asked about Click’s status multiple times Wednesday and said the two were in discussions. Crane also was asked how he would evaluate the job Click had done since taking over after Jeff Luhnow was fired in the wake of the team’s sign-stealing scandal.
“We’re going over that,” Crane said. “But I think James has done a good job. He stepped in and made some good moves. We’ll sit down and see where we’re going to end up with James.”
Click spent 14 years with the Rays, starting as a coordinator of baseball operations before becoming the team’s director of baseball research and development and director of baseball operations. He spent three seasons as vice president of baseball operations before Houston hired him.
METS: Edwin Díaz’s $102 million, five-year contract with the New York Mets includes $26.5 million in deferred payments he won’t completely receive until 2042 and also has a club option for 2028 that could make the deal worth $118.25 million over six seasons.
Díaz’s deal, announced Wednesday, set a record for dollars guaranteed to a relief pitcher. It includes a $12 million signing bonus payable in January and salaries of $17.25 million in both 2023 and 2024, and $17.5 million in 2025.
Díaz has a $18.5 million player option for both 2026 and 2027, and he must decide on both after the 2025 season. If they are exercised, the Mets have a $17.25 million option for 2028 with a $1 million buyout.
New York will defer $5.5 million annually from 2023-25 and $5 million each year in 2026 and 2027, with payments due on July 1 in future years.
PADRES: Reliever Robert Suarez agreed to remain with San Diego under a $46 million, five-year contract, according to a person with knowledge of the deal.
He went 5-1 with a 2.27 ERA in 45 appearances during the regular season.
• Right-hander Nick Martinez opted out of his contract with the San Diego Padres and became a free agent after going 4-4 with a 3.47 ERA in his return from Japanese baseball.
MINOR LEAGUES: Free agent infielder Luis Curbelo was suspended for 80 games, and Boston pitcher Starlin Santos and Miami outfielder Deivis Mosquera for 60 games each under baseball’s minor league drug program.
Curbelo tested positive for the performance-enhancing substance Clomiphene, a female fertiity drug, the commissioner’s office said Friday.
Santos, 20, tested positive for Stanozolol and Mosquera, 18, for Nandrolone. Those two are on Dominican Summer League rosters and will start serving their suspensions next season.
Curbelo’s penalty will start when he signs with a major league organization. A sixth-round draft pick by the Chicago White Sox in 2016, he was released from Double-A Birmingham in August.
RAYS: Tampa Bay hired long-time Texas Rangers executive Jon Daniels as a baseball operations senior adviser.
Daniels spent the previous 21 seasons with the Rangers, including the last 17 overseeing their baseball operations department. He was the longest-tenured top executive in team history.
Daniels was named the Rangers’ general manager on October 4, 2005. He was only 28 and became the youngest GM in Major League Baseball history.
BRAVES: Atlanta signed right-hander Nick Anderson to a one-year, non-guaranteed split contract.
Under terms of the deal announced by the Braves, The 32-year-old Anderson will earn $875,000 while he is in the majors and $185,000 if he is in the minors.
Anderson has been slowed by injuries since putting together an impressive stretch with Tampa Bay. The reliever has a 2.89 ERA and 137 strikeouts in 87 1/3 innings for his career.
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