ESPN's Jeff Passan took us behind the curtains of the Houston Astros front office in an article released Tuesday morning. You can read it here: https://www.espn.com/mlb/insider/stor...

Reading said piece, I was struck by a few things, like this quote which made me laugh: Though James Click wasn't indecisive, he did not preen about with what one person deemed Luhnow's “institutional arrogance,” which Jim Crane actually thought was an admirable thing.

But more than anything, the realization that Jeff Bagwell & Reggie Jackson have major roles in the Astros front office concerns me.

Crane, sources said, felt coming into the 2022 season that the team needed more “baseball men” involved in operations decisions and invited Hall of Famers Jeff Bagwell and Reggie Jackson into the team's weekly senior baseball-operations meetings.

So why is this a concern? Having too much influence from the ex-player realm could lead to a lot of gut reaction, shoot from the hip, and “trust me, I know because I played the game” thinking. Ideally, you want to balance the former player mindset, with modern analytics because a lot of things have changed in the past 15 years. Plus, we know James Click is no longer providing that analytical feedback, and they still haven't hired a GM to replace him.

At the end of the day, what they're doing is obviously working. Hopefully, they will continue to have that balance that's made them so successful.

Be sure to check out the video above for the full breakdown.

Listen live to the Paul Gallant Show every weekday 10—noon CT on ESPN 97.5 & 92.5 Houston.