MLB playoffs 2023: Astros reportedly part ways with Sara Goodrum, Bill Firkus as team gets off day before ALDS Game 3 in Minnesota

ABC 13 Eyewitness News

09 October 2023

MLB playoffs 2023: Astros reportedly part ways with Sara Goodrum, Bill Firkus as team gets off day before ALDS Game 3 in Minnesota

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- The American League Division Series is now a best-of-three-game series as the Houston Astros and the Minnesota Twins prepare for two games at Target Field in Minneapolis.

For Houston, the players got a chance to regroup on an off-day Monday after being held in check by the Twins' pitching in Game 2, allowing the ALDS to be tied at 1-1.

In the midst of all this, the Astros are also undergoing a shift in the front office as one of baseball's first woman executives is reportedly departing.

ABC13 Sports is rounding up the goings-on with the 'Stros, including where they sit in the World Series pecking order now that they've won and dropped a game each.

2 front-office pieces leaving

The Astros are reportedly parting ways with two of their baseball operations figures, including Sara Goodrum, whose trailblazing story to director of player development was profiled by Eyewitness News.

The Athletic's Chandler Rome first reported on the shake-up involving Goodrum and Bill Firkus, whom the Houston Chronicle said served as assistant general manager and has been with the club for 10 years.

ABC13 Sports independently confirmed the departures, citing a high-ranking source with the team. The same source also told Eyewitness Sports that the club plans to share news about all front-office promotions and departures once the season ends.

The ball club hired Goodrum in 2021 to oversee about 40 coaches and 200 players in the Astros' minor league system in Texas, North Carolina, Florida, and the Dominican Republic.

She told ABC13's Gina Gaston that she had to work particularly harder during her rise through the ranks, beginning with her walking on with the Oregon Ducks softball team.

"Even to this day, I still go through it (feeling) I have to prove myself," Goodrum said in May 2022. "I have to understand the value that I provide to the organization."

Firkus began with the 'Stros at about the beginning of Jim Crane's ownership, elevating to assistant GM before the 2023 season.

Astros' ALDS and World Series odds

If you kept track on your own, the Astros' Game 1 win propelled the team to the best odds of winning the World Series of all eight teams remaining.

But with a stagnant performance on Sunday in Game 2, Houston saw its odds slip back a bit. Caesars Sportsbook showed the Astros as a 4.25-to-1 favorite to repeat, which is second-best behind the Texas Rangers.

That's right. The Astros' AL West rivals are impressing sportsbooks after they won two games in a row against the AL No. 1-seed, Baltimore Orioles, who now need to win both ALDS games in Arlington to survive.

Meanwhile, the 'Stros saw their odds peak at 73.9% to blow past the Twins and advance into the AL Championship Series, FanGraphs showed after Game 1. But after Game 2, the two teams' odds narrowed again, with Houston slightly favored at 55.8% to Minnesota's 44.2%.

While the line on Monday doesn't show anything more than a virtual 50-50 shot for both teams, Houston's odds could see a swing in either direction after Game 3 on Tuesday afternoon.

Sonny Gray vs. Astros

The Minnesota Twins arguably have a two-headed monster in their pitching rotation, best exemplified by Pablo Lopez's seven-inning, scoreless gem against Houston on Sunday.

The other head of that monster, Sonny Gray, gets the start at home against the 'Stros, whom he has faced twice in 2023.

The first of those starts was at Target Field on April 7, when Gray threw in seven innings and allowed a walk and one earned run. But the highlight of that afternoon was the 14 strikeouts he registered against Houston in a no-decision game for him.

Gray had a quieter second start against Houston at Minute Maid Park on May 29, when he threw just three strikeouts in another no-decision contest.

But the nine-year MLB veteran enters Tuesday already with a playoff win, pitching Minnesota into the ALDS last week.