Astros' Joe Espada gets job update that should worry him greatly

Astros' Joe Espada gets job update that should worry him greatly originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

The Houston Astros are having a nightmare 2026 season so far. Between a plethora of injuries and poor production, the team is well behind schedule.

At 19-28, the Astros are only five games behind the Athletics for the top spot in the AL West, and three games back of a Wild Card spot.

But, as USA Today's Bob Nightengale shared, Astros manager Joe Espada should have some very big worries about his job status at the moment.

Astros Joe Espada should be worried about his manager job

"Houston Astros manager Joe Espada's job may be in increasing danger with each passing day," Nightengale writes.

While Nightengale isn't directly reporting that the Astros are going to fire Espada at a certain time or after a specific event, he is suggesting that a change could come soon for the Astros manager.

The record is poor at 19-28, and they own a -43 run differential, which is the third-worst in the AL, and fourth-worst in all of Major League Baseball.

The Philadelphia Phillies fired Rob Thomson, and the Boston Red Sox fired Alex Cora. It would not be a surprise if the Astros followed suit soon.

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Espada, since taking the Astros manager job in 2024, hasn't had a very productive stint for the team. They went 88-73 in year one, but went 0-2 in the postseason.

Then in year two, they missed the playoffs for the first time in a long while with an 87-75 record. And so far this season, the Astros are sporting a 19-28 record.

Unless Espada's Astros can turn things around, and soon, he might be on his way out of this manager job.

Help is on the way with a few players coming back from injury, but there's a chance it will be too little too late, with Espada firmly on the hot seat with things only getting warmer as the year moves along.