Dana Brown to take over as GM ...

Dana Brown, who departs an Atlanta Braves organization brimming with youthful talent after four years as vice president of scouting, has received the rather onerous honor of supervising the defending champs' baseball operations department. By joining the Houston Astros, he joined White Sox executive vice president Ken Williams as the league's only Black heads of baseball operations.

The Astros chose Brown to replace James Click after 75 days without a general manager and only a few weeks before spring training camps opened. Click was appointed almost precisely three years ago to replace Jeff Luhnow, who was sacked following the commissioner's investigation on the Astros' sign-stealing in 2017. The club had just missed another title by one game, so they were already a formidable force, a growing dynasty, although one set to confront a new type of difficulty as the most despised team in baseball.

In this way, Brown — who played professionally and spent decades working in baseball while establishing himself as an expert evaluator for a thoroughly modern front office before getting his first opportunity to lead a team — represents the kind of unicorn that it takes to reverse, or at least buck, these trends. For now, anyway.

Crane has indicated in the past that he felt rushed to appoint someone after Luhnow. The commissioner’s report detailing the Astros’ sign-stealing violations was released on Jan. 13, 2020; Click was hired less than a month later.

So perhaps it stands to reason that earlier this week, he addressed the vacancy by saying, “We’ll take our time and get it right.”

But Click’s effective dismissal was something Crane could’ve seen coming, considering he engineered it. Rather than act expediently to install a better fit for whatever vision he had for the role, Crane seemed content to conduct most of the offseason himself, reportedly spearheading free-agent signings this winter while letting former player Jeff Bagwell act as the face of the front office in media conferences.

Brown, 55, has worked as a scouting supervisor for the Pittsburgh Pirates, a scouting director for the former Montreal Expos and a special assistant to the general manager for the Toronto Blue Jays. Most recently, he managed an era of drafting in Atlanta that produced, among other intriguing prospects, Michael Harris II, last year's National League Rookie of the Year, and Spencer Strider, the runner-up. The Braves have created long-term success under GM Alex Anthopoulos, who Brown also worked with in Toronto, by identifying good players and signing them to long-term contracts early in their careers.