Chalres Norton, the Astros former director of baseball research/pro scouting coordinator, has sued the team, claiming they breached his contract when they terminated him on January 12.
Kind of strange in that, with a new owner, president and general manager, you expect house to have been cleaned. And the man who presided over a scouting and analytics program that gave the Astros one of the worst if not the worst minor league systems in the game is probably prime for the chopping block. But Norton says that he was promised a job for a year:
According to the lawsuit, during a meeting on Dec. 16, 2011 that included Norton, Luhnow told those who were there, “everyone here and around are signed through next year and can have comfort that they have a job for a year.”
The lawsuit also states Luhnow made similiar comments on Jan. 3, 2012.
Hurm. I have no idea what happened, but it’s rare in this day and age for a new manager to say such things to a group of people when the subject of employment and firings and stuff come up. No one in that context even promises that the sun will come up in the east for fear of getting sued.
As for the plaintiff: I wonder if he read the news reports at the time those promises were allegedly being made. because if he had, he probably would have realized that the Astros were decidedly not content to stick with the current slate of employees going forward …
