Astros promoted outstanding ace, and they made the perfect decision.

The Houston Astros are expected to announce that they are promoting bench coach Joe Espada to be their new manager.

Espada will be replacing former manager Dusty Baker, who announced his retirement shortly after Houston was eliminated from the ALCS by the eventual world-champion Texas Rangers.

USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reported that Espada and former Los Angeles Angels and Detroit Tigers manager and longtime big league catcher Brad Ausmus were the two leading candidates for the job after Baker retired. Since then, another prime candidate, former Cubs manager David Ross, became available and was also briefly linked to the Astros.

The stakes are very high for the Astros. They were nine innings away from playing in the World Series this year and have a championship-level roster that is in the last years of its prime. They can not afford to make a mistake with their new manager.

That’s why Espada is the best choice. He’s been the Astros bench coach since 2018, where he’s learned under two World Series-winning managers: A.J. Hinch and Dusty Baker. As the team’s bench coach, he’s worked closely with the Astros core, second basemen José Altuve, third baseman Alex Bregman, left fielder Yordan Alvarez, right fielder Kyle Tucker and starters Justin Verlander and Framber Valdez.

Known for his “strong communication,” Espada is popular in the Astros clubhouse among players and other members of the organization.

The Astros should also feel confident in Espada’s game management. In Game 5 of the ALCS against the Rangers, Baker was ejected in the eighth inning, forcing Espada to take over. In the ninth inning, Espada had backup catcher Yainer Diaz and seldom-used first baseman Jon Singleton pinch-hit. Diaz singled and Singleton walked, which set up Jose Altuve to hit a game-winning home run.