Dusty Baker is returning to the Houston Astros in 2023.
The 73-year-old manager confirmed on Tuesday that he will be the team’s manager next season. Brian McTaggart, an Astros reporter for MLB.com, broke the news of Baker’s return to the team. “Dusty Baker confirms he’ll return to manage Astros in 2023,” McTaggart wrote.
The contract isn’t finalized yet, however, it appears that’s just a formality.
Since taking over in Houston following the cheating scandal that banished A.J. Hinch, Baker has done nothing but succeed. Baker has led the Astros to back-to-back American League pennants and three consecutive ALCS appearances. They’ve won the AL West in each of the last two seasons and haven’t finished worse than second place. They won 106 games this year, a career-best for the future Hall of Fame manager. In fact, it was the first time he led a team to 100+ wins since his very first season managing back in 1993 with the San Francisco Giants (103).
After falling short of winning the World Series in 2021, the team won it all in 2022 over the Philadelphia Phillies in six games. He has been a successful manager everywhere but that World Series Championship was what eluded him.
After achieving that finally, the 73-year-old isn’t slowing down anytime soon.
The MLB world reacted to the news of Baker staying around in Houston for 2023.
[MLB.com]
About Chris Novak
Chris Novak has been talking and writing about sports ever since he can remember. Previously, Novak wrote for and managed sites in the SB Nation network for nearly a decade from 2013-2022