Astros exercise manager Dusty Baker’s 2021 option

The Astros will return the core of their on-field coaching staff in 2021.

The club announced Tuesday it has exercised club options on the contracts of manager Dusty Baker, pitching coach Brent Strom and third-base coach Gary Pettis for the 2021 season.

Hired to replace A.J. Hinch in February, Baker was guaranteed just the 2020 season. Upon his appointment, Baker called the Astros managerial job his “last hurrah” — a final attempt to win an elusive World Series title.

Baker enters Tuesday’s game against the Dodgers with 1,866 career managerial wins. He won a National League pennant with the Giants in 2002 but has never captured a World Series title as a manager.

Hall of Fame case closed? These baseball legacies could suffer if MLB’s season is canceled

The 2020 Major League Baseball season is delayed, indefinitely, and it’s not at all certain to ever begin. It’s not clear when the country will be able to lift measures to contain the coronavirus pandemic, or how baseball could fit into the much larger puzzle of society this year.

With the season in question, there also come (less important, but nonetheless interesting) questions about how the history of the sport will reckon with the shortened slate or potential gap in action. Such as: Who in the game right now might eventually have their Hall of Fame case altered by the pandemic-stricken 2020 season?

There have been strikes, and players have left for military service, but missing games are missing games, and they will affect some more directly than others when legacies coalesce years down the line. With that in mind, the Yahoo Sports staff got together and explained why these Cooperstown hopefuls have the most riding on 2020. - Zach Crizer

A list that may be of interest to compare with the ones of Jay Jaffe’s I’ve linked to in the last few days.

Baker laments lack of blacks in MLB on Jackie Robinson Day

Houston manager Dusty Baker celebrated Jackie Robinson’s legacy on the 73rd anniversary of the fall of the major league color barrier and lamented the lack of African Americans in today’s game.

“It’s frustrating because we’ve talked about it forever ... but it seems like the numbers are dwindling instead of increasing,” Baker said Wednesday.

Only 7.7% of big league players on opening day rosters last year were African American, down from 17% in 1990. Baker and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts are the only two African American managers in the majors.

Baker appreciates that the league is making a “conscious effort” to get more young African Americans involved in baseball through programs like Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities and is optimistic there can be a turnaround in the upcoming years.