Houston Astros: Cruz to Return in New Role, Next Step Is New Skipper

After all has been said and done, Jose Cruz will return to the Houston Astros organization in a new role, with details to be worked out in the near future.

According to MLB.com Astros beat writer Brian McTaggart, Cruz met with president of baseball operations Tal Smith at Minute Maid Park on Tuesday, Oct. 20, before agreeing to remain a part of the Houston organization.

“I’m going to be with the Astros,” Cruz told McTaggart on Tuesday. “I’m going to be working in community relations and public relations. Tal [Smith] and I have a good relationship, and we talked for about an hour and he’s going to get back to me [regarding the details of the new position].”

As far as the rest of the 2010 coaching staff is concerned, the Astros will wait until a new skipper is named before making those decisions (with both Sean Berry and Dave Clark being guaranteed spots as coaches next season).

In addition, the Astros announced that the remainder of their managerial search will be done in private, after giving the media access to their first round of interviews.

“We’ve been open on this thing, but I don’t want it to get to the point of Dancing with the Stars ,” Astros general manager Ed Wade told McTaggart on Monday, Oct. 19. “At this stage we’re comfortable with a real solid group of candidates, and our next manager should come out of this group, but we need to continue the process.”

Continuing the process means narrowing down that list of 10 to a defining moment of naming a new Houston Astros manager.

And although that decision has yet to be made, trust me when I say both Wade and team owner Drayton McLane (along with Smith and others) are diligently working on getting the right person in place.

Regardless of one’s views of Houston’s list of candidates, one has to admit that it’s a pretty solid group of individuals.

I believe the Astros would be proud to have any of the 10 names on the list as their new manager; now it’s time for the front office to make that crucial call on who will lead Houston’s baseball club in 2010.

That decision, believe it or not, will be made very soon.

And from there onward, it will be time to begin restructuring the Houston Astros baseball club into a World Series bound team.

If Wade and McLane can bring the right guy into Houston’s dugout for the 2010 season, we very well may see some magical moments at Minute Maid Park here in the very near future.

For now, and for a majority of Astros baseball fans, it’s time to wait this one out.

We’ll know soon enough who our new skipper will be.

Denton Ramsey may be reached via email at [e-mail]