HOUSTON – In a baseball universe increasingly given over to the young, where managerial experience is no longer a prerequisite to run a dugout, the World Series champions are led by a 66-year-old organizational lifer, who was filling out lineup cards in remote depots of the Deep South four decades ago.
In a competitive landscape where win curves and playoff expectancy rule all, the best team in baseball couldn’t crack .500 by the All-Star break, lost its greatest player to injury – and then tripled down, wheeling and dealing for an entirely new set of outfielders.
And in a postseason in which they had to get through the market-defying Milwaukee Brewers, the big bucks and bigger brains of the Los Angeles Dodgers and the still-formidable, industry-disrupting Houston Astros, the champions of Major League Baseball reigned thanks to the decisions of a twice-recycled GM who eschews corporate speak and a top-to-bottom organizational mindset that values every voice.