By Fitzgerald Cecilio

Houston, TX

The Houston Astros will have Washington Nationals third-base coach Bo Porter as new manager when they move to the American League next season.

The Astros named Porter as their 17th manager at a news conference at Minute Maid Park. The 40-year-old Porter will remain with the Nationals until their playoff run is over.

Porter was named to replace interim manager Tony DeFrancesco, who will guide the team over the final six games of the season and will remain in the organization in some capacity.

"He has a tremendous amount of experience and worked under some great managers," Luhnow said of Porter. "He's currently working under Davey Johnson for a successful Washington Nationals franchise and is going through an important time for them."

Porter said coaching the Astros is an honor and a dream come true as his wife Tracy grew up in Houston and his family has lived in the area for years.

"I'm completely honored," Porter said via conference call from Philadelphia. "It starts at the top with Jim Crane. He's putting together a great leadership team, and I'm honored to be part of that leadership team. When you look at successful organizations, you have success from the top all the way to the bottom."

"They did a thorough search and did a great job doing their due diligence and throughout the process, and I'm honored they decided and were in agreement I was the man for the job," added Porter, who signed a multi-year deal.

Porter had been previously interviewed for managerial positions with the Marlins and Pirates before being hired by the Nationals.

The Astros had an initial list of 49 candidates, which they trimmed to nine semifinalists and eventually four finalists, including DeFrancesco, Rays bench coach Dave Martinez and Red Sox bench coach Tim Bogar.

"We're very excited to bring Bo on board," Crane said. "We want to be respectful of the Washington Nationals and they've been courteous in letting us go through this process in advance. They're in the playoffs and Bo has some work to do before he gets here. We went through a very thorough process and interviewed a lot of candidates. We're excited about Bo's energy, his sense of urgency and his skill set."

Turning the Astros from the league's worst team with back-to-back 100-plus loss campaign to a playoff contender will be the biggest responsibility for Porter.

What excites me the most is it's a very young group, but a very talented group, and Jeff Luhnow and his staff from the day he took over has done a great job of surrounding himself with quality people off the field and on the field," Porter said. "The talent pool is very good, and now it's time to roll up our sleeves and get to work."

Aside from being a third-base coach for the Nationals and Marlins and bench coach for the Diamonbacks, Porter has some managerial experience, skippering the Marlins' Jamestown club of the New York-Penn League for the 2006 season. He made his coaching debut as hitting coach for Class A Greensboro of the South Atlantic League in 2005.

Porter played in parts of three seasons in the Major Leagues as an outfielder for the Cubs (1999), A's (2000) and Rangers (2001), appearing in a total of 89 games. He appeared in two playoff games for Oakland in 2000. Originally drafted by the Cubs in 1993, he hit 113 home runs with 503 RBIs and 236 stolen bases in 10 Minor League seasons.

 

 

Astros Pick Nats Third-Base Coach Bo Porter as New Manager