SEATTLE -- Tom Lawless, who managed the Astros for the final 24 games of last season on an interim basis to replace Bo Porter, was among a handful of Minor League staffers who were dismissed by the club.
Lawless had just finished his seventh season with the Astros, serving this year as a developmental specialist at Double-A Corpus Christi. The Astros are eliminating the position of developmental specialist as part of their offseason Minor League restructuring, general manager Jeff Luhnow said Wednesday. Jeff Murphy, a developmental specialist at Triple-A Fresno who was on the big league staff in 2013, was also dismissed, along with Class A Quad Cities developmental specialist Tim Garland, and others.