“But the one thing I had to lean on was the fact that this was a very, very, very good baseball team. And almost always when these jobs are open, it’s because something needs fixing and something needs to be addressed. Normally that’s the major league roster, but in this case, it was not.”
With a 29-31 record in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, the Astros did just enough to qualify for an expanded playoff field. They wound up losing in the A.L.C.S. to the Rays, and this season returned for the fifth consecutive time after handily winning the A.L. West.
Click strengthened this year’s bullpen with trades for Kendall Graveman and Phil Maton in July. Maton arrived from Cleveland in exchange for Myles Straw, who was the Astros’ regular center fielder. That opened the position for the prospects Chas McCormick, Jake Meyers and Jose Siri, who had floated through three organizations before the Astros signed him to a minor-league contract last December.
Siri, 26, reached the majors in September, hit .304 and started two of the first five A.L.C.S. games in center field.