Why the Astros stood tall in 2017

Organization of the Year? Easy. The Houston Astros. But not for the reasons you would first suggest.

Baseball-wise, they have awesome young talent and a forward-thinking front office headed by a general manager raised in Mexico City.

And off the field, the team and its owner hit all the right notes while dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey in Houston and Hurricane María in Puerto Rico, down to airlifting relatives of players from other teams off the island.

For the first annual La Vida Baseball Awards, the Astros are the Organization of the Year because they get it. Not only in applying sabermetrics to construct a team and acquire Latino talent, but also in allowing their players to influence the team’s culture.

Believing in people

This is an organization that speaks the new languages of baseball, a club that firmly believes in spin rates, bat speed and exit velocities, but intuitive enough to invest $16 million in a 40-year-old veteran because it understood that his leadership skills were priceless.

The Astros — a team that lost more than 100 games three straight seasons not too long ago — are world champions for the first time in their 56-year history because they successfully melded Venezuelans, Puerto Ricans, Panamanians, Cubans, Dominicans and Americans with sophisticated data analyses, high expectations and a ritual after each victory that involved wrestling belts, party lights and a fog machine.

“We believe in people,” manager A.J. Hinch told MLB.com before the start of the World Series. “We believe in scouting. We also are forward-thinking in gathering and using information. But we do understand and appreciate the human element.”

The Beltrán Effect

Under Hinch, this was a clubhouse led by veterans Carlos Beltrán and Brian McCann that fostered an environment of constant support and encouragement for the younger players.

From going to dinner with Carlos Correa and José Altuve shortly after signing to counseling Yuli Gurriel when he made a racist gesture in Game 3 of the World Series, in his 20th major league season, Beltrán filled to perfection the role of elder statesman.

And while he barely played toward the end of the postseason, with measured words and a calm disposition Beltrán helped the Astros overcome a 3-2 deficit against the New York Yankees in the ALCS, and then ensured that his younger teammates were relaxed and focused for Game 7 of the World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Smart decisions

Credit also owner Jim Crane in hiring smart people, starting with general manager Jeff Luhnow, who earned dual degrees in economics and engineering at the University of Pennsylvania before getting a MBA at Northwestern and working for the global management consulting firm of McKinsey & Company.

Not surprisingly, Luhnow is an avid fantasy player. But analytics without soul and perspective don’t cut it in an increasingly multicultural world. Just as important is the fact that Luhnow spent more than 15 years as a kid in Mexico City — rooting for Fernando Valenzuela and los Doyers — speaks fluent Spanish and has invested heavily in scouting and player development across all of Latin America, especially in Venezuela and the Dominican Republic.

Without doubt, the Astros stood tall and stood apart from the competition.

The 5-foot-6 Altuve took home a plethora of hardware, including his third batting title and the AL MVP and Hank Aaron awards. Centerfielder George Springer, a spokesman for the Stuttering Association for the Young, was voted the World Series MVP. Beltrán, who donated $1 million through his foundation to Puerto Rican relief, earned his first World Series title.

Crane, the team’s ownership group and the Astros Foundation donated $4 million to Harvey relief. They worked with FedEx, the Houston mayor’s office and Crane’s company, Crane Worldwide Logistics, to send a half-dozen planes filled with relief supplies to Puerto Rico and bring back the relatives of major league players regardless of their affiliations, including the families of Francisco Lindor’s girlfriend and of Enrique “Kiké” Hernández.

But of all the good things that the Astros accomplished this season, the wisest and most enduring may have been to embrace fully the Latinos on the team and their approach to baseball.

Correa, Altuve, Gurriel, Springer, Marwin González and even Beltrán all played hard and with great joy. They took each game seriously, but also took time to celebrate each one of their 101 regular-season and 11 postseason victories — as well as hold a mock funeral for Beltrán’s glove when the veteran hadn’t played in the field for nearly two months.

Definitely not the Yankees’ way.

But definitely what you would expect of the organization of the year.

Featured Image: Alex Trautwig / MLB Photos / Getty Images