General manager Dana Brown and manager Joe Espada are sticking around, but that doesn’t mean the Astros aren’t making big changes. Team parts ways with hitting coaches Alex Cintron and Troy Snitker, catching coach Michael Collins, head athletic trainer Jeremiah Randall and assistant general manager Andrew Ball, relayed by Brian McTaggart of MLB.com and Chandler Rome of The Athletic.
It’s no surprise that the Astros are looking for new blood. They missed the playoffs this year for the first time since 2016, after a season marred by injuries and offensive inconsistency. McTaggart confirmed yesterday that Brown and Espada would return in 2026, but it appears Cintrón, Snitker, Collins, Randall and Ball aren’t that lucky.
Cintrón initially joined the Astros as a performer and quickly became the first base coach. He and Snitker, previously a minor league hitting coach, took over as Houston’s co-hitting coaches in 2019, and they served in that role together for the next seven years. There’s no doubt they inherited a very talented group, but Cintrón and Snitker still deserve their fair share of credit for guiding an offense that led the AL in all three triple-slash categories from 2019 to 24. Unfortunately, the Astros finished with just 100 wRC+ in 2025, indicating league-average levels of offensive production. The hitting coaches can’t be blamed for the departure of Kyle Tucker And Alex Bregman or injury to Yordan Alvarez And Isaac Paredesbut it is nevertheless not surprising that the organization has decided to take a new direction.
Speaking of injuries, Alvarez and Paredes were far from the only Astros to miss significant time, and that likely explains why Randall is out of a job after 10 seasons as Houston’s head athletic trainer. According to the Baseball Prospectus Injured List Ledger, no team lost more value to the IL than the Astros in 2025. And while some of those injuries might have been unforeseeable and unavoidable, the club has faced particular scrutiny for how it handled injuries to Alvarez and Jake Meyers.
Collins grew up playing cricket in Australia (according to Chron’s Leah Vann) before learning to play baseball and quickly attracting the interest of MLB scouts. After a long career in the minor leagues, he moved into coaching in the minor leagues and eventually joined the Astros as a bullpen catcher in 2018. He returned to coaching duties the following season.
Ball previously worked in the Rays and Angels front offices before joining the Astros as an assistant general manager before the 2022 season. He was part of the team that temporarily took over Houston’s front office the following winter, between the end of James Click’s tenure as general manager and the start of Brown’s tenure. According to the Astros’ website, Ball’s duties included overseeing the team’s research and development as well as sports medicine and performance departments.
