The Houston Astros have their new manager. Brad Ausmus has officially been hired and was introduced on Friday. He was previously the bench coach of the New York Yankees and was the manager of the Detroit Tigers from 2014 to 2017 and the Los Angeles Angels in 2019. His hiring has brought fresh scrutiny of his past tenure as a manager as well as a controversial joke he made in 2014 when he was with the Tigers.
When the Tigers got off to a bad start in 2014 and he was asked about how he deals with that, he made a joke in poor taste saying, “I beat my wife… I’m just kidding around. No, luckily my wife and kids are fantastic. I do get a little mopey at home, but my wife and kids are good.” Then in the same session with the media he said, “I didn’t want to make light of battered women. I didn’t mean to make light of that, so I apologize for that if that offended anyone.”
To his credit, at least he did realize that the joke was in poor taste and he apologized for it basically immediately. Still, it’s understandable why some may not have been a fan of those remarks and Keith Law of The Athletic recently brought them up on Bluesky.
Law clearly does not think Ausmus did a very good job in his two managerial stints, writing: “He was a really poor tactical manager in two stops, and also this,” he wrote, linking to an article about the joke Ausmus made. And in a followup post, Law wrote: “This feels like a hire off the interview, not the resume.”
Ausmus has to prove that this managerial stint will be different
The Tigers had a couple of decent seasons under Ausmus. They went 90-72 in 2014 but got swept in the ALDS. Then in 2016 they went 86-75 and in 2017 they went 64-98 which got him fired in Detroit. His one year with the Angels did not go great as the team went 72-90 so clearly he has to prove that this time things will be different.
He’s been with a winning franchise in the Yankees for several years now so maybe watching that team up close will help him as he tries to turn the Astros back into one of the better teams in the American League.
While that bad joke from 2014 was a long time ago, it is something that will always be associated with Ausmus but hopefully he has learned both from that controversy and his past managerial stints and can apply those lessons going forward.
Controversial Brad Ausmus Joke Resurfaces After Astros Hiring