The Houston Astros hire Jeff Luhnow to be their new General Manager, one week after Ed Wade was fired. Luhnow was a Vice-President with the St. Louis Cardinals, responsible for overseing their drafting and for player development in Latin America.

On December 7, 2011 — The Astros hire Jeff Luhnow as the team’s general manager to replace Ed Wade, who was fired last month in the first major moves made by new owner Jim Crane.

The 45 year-old new GM, a vice president with St. Louis since 2003, will try to improve upon Houston’s 56-106 finish last season, the worst record in franchise history. He will fill the front office with sabermetric types and decides to tear the organization down to the bare bones before rebuilding it into the group that won the Worlds Championship in 2017.