Randy Flores: What to know about Houston Astros’ new general manager
After a two-month search, the Houston Astros hired Randy Flores as their new general manager Friday night, filling a role that had been vacant since the dismissal of Dana Brown in late August.
Flores arrives from the St. Louis Cardinals, where he had worked in the front office since August 2015 and spent the past eight seasons as an assistant general manager. The Astros will introduce Flores in a news conference Monday morning at Daikin Park.
Here are things to know about Flores, 51, who becomes the 15th general manager in Astros history:
What was Flores’ role with the Cardinals?
St. Louis initially hired Flores as its scouting director in August 2015. Flores held that title through 2018 and continued to operate as scouting director after being promoted to assistant general manager under then-president of baseball operations John Mozeliak in November 2018. Flores oversaw the Cardinals’ amateur drafts from 2016-26 and in recent years his responsibilities reportedly expanded to overseeing their pro scouting staff, as well. He worked last season under Chaim Bloom, who succeeded Mozeliak as St. Louis’ president of baseball operations after the 2025 season. All of Flores’ front-office experience is with the Cardinals, with whom he also spent most of his eight-year major-league playing career.
Randy Flores was an immediate contributor at USC and helped the Trojans reach the College World Series. He later returned to the school to pursue a master’s degree. (Anacleto Rapping/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Flores’ pre-MLB playing background
A left-handed pitcher, Flores was born in Bellflower, Calif., attended El Rancho High School in nearby Pico Rivera – where he stood 5-foot-2 and 95 pounds as a freshman, per the Los Angeles Times – and walked on at the University of Southern California, where he stood out immediately. Flores received all-Pac 10 honors in all four of his seasons at USC, helped the program reach the 1995 College World Series and is still USC’s career leader in wins (42), innings (484 ⅓) and complete games (22). He earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a concentration in finance, according to the USC website, and was drafted by the New York Yankees in the ninth round in 1997.
Randy Flores made his major-league debut with the Rangers as part of a career in which he pitched for four different teams. (LOUIS DeLUCA/Dallas Morning News)
In the majors
Flores climbed to Triple-A in New York’s system but never pitched for the Yankees, who traded him to the Texas Rangers after the 2001 season as a player to be named later in a deal for infielder Randy Velarde. He debuted for the Rangers in 2002 and also pitched in the Rockies’ system before signing with St. Louis, where his career accelerated. Flores spent five seasons with the Cardinals, making 237 regular-season appearances – all but one in relief – with a 4.35 ERA. Overall, he made 350 regular-season outings in the majors for the Cardinals, Rockies, Rangers and Twins from 2002-10, and won a World Series ring with St. Louis in 2006.
Randy Flores contributed to the Cardinals’ 2006 World Series-winning team, earning a ride in the championship parade through St. Louis. (Elsa/Getty Images)
Postseason moment
Flores appeared in two postseasons with the Cardinals, in 2005 and ’06. He was part of a club that lost to the Astros in the 2005 NLCS – despite Albert Pujols’ dramatic home run in Game 5 in Houston – and had two outings in that series, hurling 1 ⅓ scoreless innings. His biggest playoff moment, though, occurred in the 2006 NLCS against the Mets. In Game 7, Flores entered a 1-1 game in the eighth with a runner on base and retired Carlos Delgado, David Wright and Shawn Green. Yadier Molina’s two-run home run in the ninth broke the tie, and Flores earned the win as the Cardinals advanced to and eventually won the World Series.
Post-playing career
After his career ended with a season in the minors in 2011, Flores returned to USC to pursue a master’s degree at the Rossier School of Education in postsecondary administration and student affairs, per the school. He also worked as a college baseball analyst for ESPN and the Pac-12 Network during that time, per the Cardinals. In 2013, he joined the USC coaching staff as an assistant under then-head coach Dan Hubbs, while in the master’s program.
In 2014, Flores started a company, OnDeck Digital, with the purpose of capturing and providing game video of amateur players for use by individuals, recruiters or scouts. By the time St. Louis hired Flores, there were 11 major-league teams subscribed to OnDeck Digital, and his business venture appealed to the Cardinals and Mozeliak, who described their draft process at the time as "a balance between the scouting world and the analytical world," per the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Mozeliak told the Post-Dispatch after hiring Flores in 2015: "Our draft is a process-oriented draft. It requires a certain level of discipline. It’s a balance between the scouting world and the analytical world. Being able to understand those values and manage that is critical. ‘Flo’ has shown that he has that skill set in the sense that he has a great understanding of how we do business. (He knows) the type of thinking we embrace."
Former Kingwood High School standout Masyn Winn is among the notable Cardinals’ draft picks during Randy Flores’ time as scouting director in St. Louis. (Jason Fochtman/Houston Chronicle)
How the Cardinals drafted under Flores
St. Louis picked outside of the top 18 in the first eight drafts Flores oversaw. Its more fruitful classes in that stretch included 2016 (Tommy Edman, Zac Gallen, Dylan Carlson); 2018 (Brendan Donovan, Lars Nootbaar, Kyle Leahy); and the shortened 2020 draft (Masyn Winn, Alec Burleson, Jordan Walker).
The Cardinals’ draft-and-develop successes during that time seemed to skew more toward the middle rounds and the position player side. From 2016-26, the Cardinals drafted 14 players in the first round who have accrued a combined 19.6 wins above replacement in the majors, per Baseball Reference, led by 2024 first-rounder JJ Wetherholt. Their 14 second-round picks in that span have combined for 14.9 bWAR, led by Winn.
Wetherholt, Winn, Walker (an All-Star in 2026) and Burleson (the majors’ 2026 RBI leader) all appear to be part of the Cardinals’ current core. St. Louis traded Donovan last offseason for a haul of prospects and draft picks. Walker and Donovan are the only All-Stars the Cardinals drafted under Flores, while Iván Herrera, an All-Star in 2026, was signed as an international free agent in 2016.
Jeff Luhnow, also a former Cardinals executive, was the first general manager Jim Crane hired as Astros owner. Crane is now dipping into the St. Louis well again with
Source: sports.yahoo.com — article syndicated from the publisher’s feed; all rights remain with the original publisher.