Brewers’ Matt Kleine Is Astros’ Top Target In GM Search

The Astros are looking for a new general manager and may have found one. Chandler Rome of The Athletic reports that Brewers assistant general manager Matt Kleine is Houston’s top choice, though a deal to officially hire him has not yet been agreed upon. Kleine has been in the mix for quite a while. Back in August, shortly after Dana Brown was dismissed from the Houston general manager position, Kleine was mentioned as a possible candidate. That report also mentioned Matt Klentak, another Milwaukee assistant general manager. Rome’s report today mentions that Klentak did indeed receive interest but removed himself from consideration earlier this month. In the weeks and months that followed Brown’s dismissal, Kleine emerged as a real consideration, as expected. He wasn’t alone. Former Nationals president of baseball operations Mike Rizzo, Rays assistant general manager Kevin Ibach, White Sox assistant general manager Josh Barfield, Cardinals assistant general manager Randy Flores, Royals senior vice president Scott Sharp and Braves assistant general manager Ben Sestanovich were also publicly connected to the vacancy, though Kleine was viewed by many as a favorite. It’s an understandable choice. As mentioned by Rome, Astros owner Jim Crane suggested he would be looking to find a new general manager within the ranks of a club that had been finding major league success with a low payroll. The Brewers currently stand as the poster child for that model. Their player payroll is usually in the bottom third of MLB clubs but they have had strong records regardless. They have made the postseason in eight of the past nine seasons. In 2026, they cranked their win total up to a franchise high 103 and then went on to win the first World Series in club history. Kleine has been a part of that front office for a while. He got hired by the Brewers as an associate scout 19 years ago. He worked his way up the ladder and got promoted to assistant general manager after the 2023 season. If the Astros and Kleine can finalize a deal, he will be taking over a club with a lot of challenges ahead. The Astros have been consistently successful for over a decade but have been trending down lately. They won 106 games and the World Series in 2022 but their win total has slid to 90, 88, 87 and 81 in recent years. Key players like Alex Bregman and Kyle Tucker are long gone. Jose Altuve is still on the roster and Carlos Correa is back but both are now in their mid-30s and are seeing their production decline. The roster does still have Yordan Alvarez, Jeremy Peña, Isaac Paredes, Christian Walker, Yainer Diaz, Josh Hader and Hunter Brown but there are some concerns in there as well. Peña, Paredes and Walker are impending free agents after 2027. Alvarez, Hader, Diaz and Brown are slated for the open market after 2028. The farm system is not in great shape, due to years of picking late in the draft, on top of some penalties related to the sign-stealing scandal. There is perhaps some payroll capacity but the Astros have generally shied away from massive contracts. They have never given a free agent more than $100MM. They have signed a few extensions larger than that but none longer than six years and none of those exceeded $160MM in new money. On the other hand, the division is wide open and the Astros have been willing to run decent payrolls when trying to compete. The roster has a lot of moving pieces right now but was good enough to sneak into the playoffs in 2026. If Kleine officially gets the job, he will have work to do, and will have to navigate around the expected offseason lockout. Photo courtesy of Troy Taormina, Imagn Images