Dana Brown Wants the Astros to Rediscover Their Identity

When it comes to building a team, to what extent do the Astros look to form an identity, as opposed to simply acquiring the best players possible? Houston general manager Dana Brown didn’t specifically answer that question when it was posed to him at the GM Meetings in Las Vegas, but he did offer some insights into the team’s identity itself. On the heels of a 2025 season in which his club scored its fewest runs since 2014 (save for the truncated COVID campaign), Brown cited the need to rediscover part of what made them a perennial postseason participant.

“We lost a little of our identity last season,” Houston’s top exec told me. “We got away from running deep counts [and] hitting for slug. Those are things we need to get back to, and that’s why we made a change in the hitting area. We wanted new voices. So that’s going to be our identity. Our identity is slug, have deep counts, catch the ball, and really pitch.”

The change Brown referred to was replacing hitting coaches Alex Cintrón and Troy Snitker with Victor Rodriguez and Anthony Iapoce, each of whom brings years of experience and a reputation of working well with hitters. Also notable was the promotion of Dan Hennigan to director of hitting/offensive coordinator. As reported by MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart, Brown believes that Hennigan “will help us from an analytic and data standpoint in terms of preparing and game-planning. It’s a complete overhaul of how we did things.”

Overhaul aside, having talented and healthy hitters in the lineup certainly wouldn’t hurt. Along with losing Alex Bregman to free agency and trading Kyle Tucker to the Cubs — two stalwarts on recent Astros teams — Houston had some of its best bats land on the injured list in 2025. Brown did mention injuries as a contributing factor to the downturn, but it was nonetheless the “early contact and not making pitchers work” that he seemed most concerned about. Reiterating what he said at the onset of our conversation, Brown stated that his club had lost a little of its identity and “the plan is to regain it.”

I asked Brown whether the Astros had lost anything on the pitching side.

“Other than injuries, I thought our pitching did well,” replied Brown, whose team also saw a number of arms land on the shelf over the course of the season. “I think we were second in baseball in strikeouts behind the Dodgers. The young guys who stepped up for the guys who were hurt came in and did a good job. We pitched well enough to get to the postseason. But we faded bat-wise down the stretch without Yordan [Alvarez] when he got hurt the second time. We lost Yordan, [Jeremy] Peña, and [Isaac] Paredes all at the same time for a month, and sort of lost the identity of our offense. It showed in the win-loss column.”

The Astros finished the season 87-75, ultimately falling just short of the postseason; it was the first time they’d failed to reach the playoffs since 2016. A lack of offensive production was indeed a big reason for that — Houston was third in the junior circuit for pitcher WAR — so improving in that area would go a long way toward them playing October baseball in 2026.

How much will the “complete overhaul” actually help Brown’s team reestablish its identity and get back to being the team that led the American League in both runs scored and slugging percentage from 2017 to 2024 (it was eighth in both categories this year)? That’s a good question. While the new voices will certainly provide value, getting more than 199 plate appearances from Alvarez would arguably have an even bigger impact. Moreover, upgrading at a position or two, be it in the free agent market or via trade, would also go a long way toward achieving Brown’s stated goal.

Acquiring and retaining the best players possible — ditto having them remain healthy — is a tried and true recipe for success. It is far easier to have a desired identity when you have those things going for you. Brown knows that, of course. As for his decision to go in a different direction with Houston’s hitting group — this for the intended purpose of returning to they were — only time will tell if the changes bear fruit. Then again, correlation doesn’t imply causation. Regardless of how it comes about, the Astros want their old identity back.