This story was excerpted from Brian McTaggart’s Astros Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
HOUSTON – He was a walk-on at USC. He played four years of college baseball and was a senior signee after being drafted by the Yankees. He spent nine years and threw more than 1,100 innings in the Minor Leagues before making his Major League debut at 26 years old.
Nothing has come easy for Randy Flores on his ascent to general manager of the Astros, and his broad experience in the game – from a player, to founding a sports video technology company, to an MLB front office – is what stood out to owner Jim Crane, who introduced Flores on Monday at a press conference at Daikin Park.
“We went over and over it and we reflected back on everybody we spoke to and the qualities we were looking for and Randy was a perfect fit,” Crane said. “He has experience in every single area of baseball, and you don't find that very often. He has been trained and been around some good organizations. So he stood out at the end, and that's who we hired.”
The 51-year-old Flores, who insists to be called “Flo” in baseball circles, is the first former player to become general manager of the Astros since Bob Watson (1993-95), but his path is unique.
The son of a pastor and third-generation Mexican-American who raised his family in Los Angeles, Flores earned a master’s degree in postsecondary administration from USC in 2014 after his playing career. During graduate school, he was USC’s pitching coach (2013) and worked as a college baseball analyst for ESPN and Pac-12 Networks.
“Those of you guys who in our respective walks of life, you all know that as you continue to ride and descend into a place that has influence, the road is long and is hard,” he said. “I had already lived that all-in life as a player. I had been all-in.”
A former left-handed pitcher who appeared in 350 career Major League games with the Cardinals (2006 World Series champ), Rockies, Rangers and Twins, Flores spent the last eight seasons as assistant GM with the Cardinals after joining the club’s front office as director of scouting in 2015.
It was former Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak who called Flores more than a decade ago to gauge his interest in returning to the organization. St. Louis was looking to replace Chris Correa, who was dismissed in July 2015 after allegations he had illegally accessed the Astros' player personnel database and email system. Correa was later sentenced to 46 months in prison.
“Some of you guys know the history of why [Mozeliak] called, looking for an outside candidate to lead the scouting department,” Flores said. “That then led to managing and leading in baseball ops over these 10-plus years and then learning and growing under [president of baseball operations] Chaim Bloom's leadership over the last couple years. And then another life-changing call came from Jim Crane to explore my candidacy to lead this club, which ultimately led to me sitting here in front of you all today.”
With the Cardinals, Flores oversaw the MLB Draft for several years before evolving into player acquisitions, waiver claims, player evaluation and trades and even arbitration negotiations. He helped build a Cardinals system that was ranked No. 4 midseason by MLB Pipeline.
Among the Cardinals players drafted by Flores are 2026 NL Rookie of the Year finalist JJ Wetherholt (No. 7 overall in ’24), 2026 All-Star Jordan Walker (first round in 2020), 2025 NL shortstop Gold Glove winner Masyn Winn (second round in 2020), 2026 MLB RBI leader Alec Burleson (second round in 2020) and Tommy Edman (sixth round in 2026, later traded to Dodgers).
“Over the last couple years, it's been a pleasure to be involved in our hiring cycle. Under Chaim Bloom's leadership, we revamped the infrastructure and investment in our player development pipeline,” Flores said.
With the Astros, Flores will be working for an owner who expects his team to be in contention each year and will provide the budget for him to succeed. There’s work to be done – finding a manager, upgrading an aging roster and continue to infuse the farm system -- but it’s a challenge Flores accepts.
“We're all competitive in this game,” he said. “Otherwise, why do this job? You keep score every night. Yes, certainly, we want sustained [success], we want development, we want process. But ultimately, every night, there's a real game. It's not expected outcomes, it's not probabilities. It’s a win and a loss, and there's 162 of them, and I can't wait to be in that fight with this team.”