Astros firing Dana Brown could directly affect Brewers' leadership pipeline

After defeating the New York Yankees on Tuesday night, and seeing their division rivals, the Texas Rangers, lose to the Chicago White Sox, the Houston Astros, with a 66-66 record, lead the American League West on August 26. However, despite their division-leading roster and a league-altering lockout likely on the horizon, the Astros elected to shake up their front office with just five weeks remaining in the regular season by firing general manager Dana Brown on Monday morning.

Brown, who has worked for five different MLB organizations since his playing career in the minor leagues ended in 1991, was hired to lead the Astros' front office in January of 2023, and in the time since, Houston has won the AL West twice (in 2023 and 2024) and finished in second place with 87 wins during the 2025 season, narrowly missing out on their ninth consecutive postseason appearance. Brown's track record with the Astros was by no means perfect, but it's nevertheless surprising to see Houston part ways with their front office leader at this point in the year.

The Astros' decision not only comes as a surprise, but it also has a ripple effect on the rest of the league. In need of a replacement for Brown's role, which will be one of the more attractive jobs available this offseason given the state of the Astros' organization, Houston will be looking to poach a talented candidate from one of the league's best front offices.

With perhaps the most highly-regarded front office in all of MLB, the Milwaukee Brewers could certainly lose one of their key executives to the Astros job in the coming months. Already, several members of Milwaukee's impressive collection of front office executives have been cited as potential fits for the job in Houston. On the Baseball Insiders' podcast on Monday afternoon (linked below), FanSided's own Robert Murray cited three members of the Brewers' front office who could replace Brown in Houston.

Brewers' talented front office expected to attract Astros in their search for Dana Brown's replacement

Murray named three members of the Brewers' front office who could theoretically replace Brown as the head of the Astros' front office. Matt Klentak, the former general manager of the Philadelphia Phillies, currently serves as an executive advisor to the general manager in the Brewers' front office, which he has been a part of since the 2022 season. Billy Eppler, meanwhile, served as the general manager for both the Los Angeles Angels and New York Mets before joining the Brewers as a special advisor to scouting and baseball operations in March of 2025. Matt Kleine, who Murray focused on the most, has been with the Brewers for nearly 20 years, rising through the ranks before assuming the role of assistant general manager in 2023. Meanwhile, Thad Levine, who served as the Minnesota Twins' GM for eight years before stepping down in 2024, is also currently serving as a special advisor in the Brewers' front office, and he too could be a candidate for the Astros' job.

It's something of a "Catch-22" for the Brewers' front office. Like the premise of Joseph Heller's 1961 satirical war novel, the Brewers' front office's success creates a frustrating paradox: the more successful the Brewers are, the harder it becomes for the front office to retain their talented executives, thus making it more difficult for the organization to maintain that success in the future.

That said, the Brewers have created a "process" that is seemingly larger than any one executive. Perhaps the best evidence of this sustainable method is the fact that Brewers' President of Baseball Operations, David Stearns, stepped down ahead of the 2023 season, and the team has found just as much success (if not more) in the wake of his tenure. To that extent, if one of the many worthy candidates in the Brewers' front office does leave for the Astros' job, the Brewers should have the infrastructure to sustain the loss, even if it does take something away from their talented front office.

More than anything, the fact that Murray and several others in the industry are citing members of the Brewers' front office as top candidates for the Astros job is a testament to Milwaukee's success in recent years. The Brewers' front office has easily been among the best in baseball for years, and other organizations now want the secrets to their success.

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