Astros go young by choosing Porter as manager
The Houston Astros' youth movement moved beyond the active roster and into the manager's office Thursday when the club named 40-year-old Washington Nationals third base coach Bo Porter its 17th manager in franchise history. Porter, as it stands now, will be the youngest manager in Major League Baseball and will be in a big-league manager's seat for the first time.
Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow said there would be limited contact with Porter as he goes for a World Series ring with the Nationals. He will then take over and work to put together a staff with all the current Astros coaches considered.
Porter, a Houston resident in the offseason, emerged from four finalists and nine interviewed candidates. The Astros brass flew to Philadelphia on Wednesday to lock him up before any other team could start its managerial search.
"We were able to talk to them without worrying about who had an opening or what else was going on," Luhnow said. "But at the end of the day, it doesn't matter that we were the only opening. This was a great fit."
Porter expressed his excitement for the job as he was praised for leadership qualities and baseball intellect.
"(Owner Jim Crane) is putting together a great leadership team, and I am just honored to be a part of that leadership team," Porter said. "They did a thorough search and did a great job of going through the process, and I'm just honored that I'm the person that they decided and were all in agreement was the man for the job."
