Gerry Hunsicker — the most successful general manager in the history of the Houston Astros — resigned Monday after nine years as the club’s general manager.
Hunsicker’s tenure as Stros GM coincided with the most successful decade in Stros’ history. During the past nine years, the Stros won four National League Central titles and finished second three times, including this past season in which the Stros won their first post-season playoff series in club history. Over that span, the Stros had a won/loss record of 701-595 for a sixth-best winning percentage of .541 in Major League Baseball. Only three MLB GMs have served in their current job for more seasons than Hunsicker.
Hunsicker will be replaced by his long-time assistant, Tim Purpura.
The Stros hired Hunsicker as GM in 1995 from the New York Mets organization, where he worked for seven seasons, first as director of minor-league operations and then as assistant GM. Hunsicker and Purpura are credited in baseball circles with revamping the Stros’ farm system over the past decade to produce such star players as Lance Berkman, Richard Hidalgo, Bobby Abreu, Roy Oswalt, Brad Lidge, and Wade Miller. In addition to building the Stros’ farm system, Hunsicker also traded for or signed such talents as Randy Johnson, Jeff Kent, Octavio Dotel, Moises Alou, Carl Everett, Jose Lima, Carlos Beltran and Roger Clemens.
Consequently, by any reasonable measure, Hunsicker’s tenure with the Stros has been a successful one. However, the margin for error is razor thin with a mid-market club such as the Stros, and Hunsicker’s two major failures contributed to the Stros’ inability to break into the elite level of MLB clubs.
Hunsicker’s first mistake was the decision to sign Jeff Bagwell and Hidalgo to high dollar, long-term contracts after the 2000 season. That error in judgment reverberates through the Stros organization to this day. Although those signings were popular from a public relations standpoint, Bagwell had already begun his decline in production and Hidalgo had shown only streaks of high production at the time of those contracts.
Now, almost five years later, the Stros are obligated to pay Bags a total of $39 million over the next three seasons, which is about $25 million greater than his market value. Similarly, the club remains responsible for a multi-million portion of Hidalgo’s contract, all at a time when the Stros are trying to sign free agents Beltran and Clemens, and arbitration eligible stars Berkman and Oswalt. Moreover, because the overpaid Bags remains tethered to first base, the Stros have been unable to move the more productive Berkman to his natural position of first base and open up an outfield spot for MLB-ready Jason Lane. It was Hunsicker’s job to forsee the problems that the Bags and Hidalgo contracts would have on the Stros and point owner Drayton McLane in another direction. He did not and that failure has — and will continue for the next several years — to affect the Stros negatively.
Hunsicker’s other big mistake was in failing to secure a quality catcher for the club. Actually, the Stros had developed a potential star catcher in their minor league system — Mitch Melusky — but a combination of emotional and physical problems undermined his Major League career after only one promising season. When Melusky flamed out, Hunsicker seemed to give up on the position as he overpaid the consistently unproductive Brad Ausmus to an absurdly overmarket contract in 2001 while waiting for the farm system to produce another MLB-quality catcher. Alas, the system did not produce such a player, leaving the Stros with Ausmus and Raul Chavez as their catchers this season. That duo was the weakest catching unit of any team in Major League Baseball this past season.
Despite these failures, Hunsicker has been unquestionably the most successful GM in the 43 year history of the Stros franchise. Which begs the question: Why did he decide to quit?
Based completely on speculation, I think the reason is that McLane is quietly trying to sell the club. As a result, McLane does not want to be forced to eat a large portion of an extended Hunsicker contract if he finds a someone in the next year or two who is willing to buy the club, but who is not interested in retaining Hunsicker as GM. With McLane unwilling to provide him with long term security, Hunsicker elected to take a year off, review his alternatives, and then, on the first day after the remaining year on his Stros contract expires, accept the best GM job available at that time.
One thing is for sure — Hunsicker will not remain unemployed very long after the remaining year on his Stros contract expires. He was a big part of a very good past decade for the Houston Astros, and this talented man will land on his feet in another GM position in Major League Baseball.
Best of luck, Gerry Hunsicker.