As he does every Sunday, Bob Nightengale dropped a column this week with news and notes from around the MLB, including plenty of breadcrumbs and tidbits coming off of the GM meetings that took place in Arizona earlier this week.
Here's some of the cherry-picked items of importance we learned from his latest column:
Astros next manager seems firm
Joe Espada, current bench coach of the Houston Astros, is expected to get promoted from his role as bench coach to manager on Monday, filling the role for the recently retired Dusty Baker. Espada has experience coaching with multiple organizations, including serving as third base coach for the Marlins and Yankees.
Espada has been the Astros bench coach since 2017 and has interviewed for managerial roles multiple times, now finally getting the call-up to the manager role.