HOUSTON -- With several teams around the league hiring managers this week, the Astros’ search for a replacement for the retired Dusty Baker has begun in earnest. General manager Dana Brown, speaking from the General Managers Meetings in Scottsdale, Ariz., said Tuesday the club has started to interview potential managerial candidates, including bench coach Joe Espada.

Astros owner Jim Crane has made it clear the task of finding a new manager belongs to Brown, who’s conducting his first manager search after being hired 10 months ago. There should be no shortage of candidates considering the Astros have made seven consecutive American League Championship Series appearances and Crane has shown a commitment to staying competitive.

“They’re going to come into this environment and keep that moving,” Brown said. “And so, you have to really, really comb through the makeup and the character of each person that you’re talking to and you have to call up friends in the game and people you know to try to make sure you get it right before you get too far down the road.”

Espada, who interviewed last week, has been the Astros’ bench coach since 2018 and has interviewed for managerial openings with multiple teams during the past five years. Promoting the 48-year-old would present a seamless transition for the club, but Espada’s contract with the Astros expired Oct. 31, a source said, and his name has been linked to Milwaukee’s opening.

Brown plans to interview multiple candidates to get different perspectives and gain some interviewing experience in what is his first search for a manager. Brown came to the Astros after spending the previous four seasons (2019-22) as the vice president of scouting in Atlanta, a place he may turn to find potential candidates. On Tuesday, Brown wouldn’t say if Braves coaches Ron Washington, Walt Weiss and Eric Young -- who was a high school teammate of Brown -- were candidates in Houston.

“I don’t want to get into specifics and names, and I would just say we’ve talked to a lot of people and some of the people we know well,” Brown said. “We’ve gone through a lot of the names and a lot of the names I knew very well.”

Brown maintained the club’s focus this winter will be reinforcing the bullpen and finding a backup catcher, with Yainer Diaz taking over as the starter behind the plate next year. Three key relievers from the 2023 bullpen -- Hector Neris, Phil Maton and Ryne Stanek -- are free agents. Neris (71 games), Maton (68 games) and Stanek (55 games) combined to throw 185 innings last season -- 33.9 percent of the team’s relief innings in 2023.

Brown said filling roles in the bullpen ahead of setup man Bryan Abreu and closer Ryan Pressly will be where the Astros will be looking when it comes to relievers.

“If it comes down to getting a seventh-inning guy or we have to use money that we could use for a sixth-inning guy and a catcher, we’ll probably get the sixth-inning guy and a catcher and fill the seventh-inning guy from within,” Brown said.

Brown didn’t rule out adding a starting pitcher, but the Astros will have depth next year. They’ll return injured starters Lance McCullers Jr. and Luis Garcia sometime next season and have a rotation anchored by Justin Verlander, Framber Valdez, Cristian Javier and José Urquidy, along with up-and-comers Hunter Brown and J.P. France.

“I think we’re good enough to get back to the postseason with the current rotation, but I’m not being closed-minded to if a starter falls into our lap and we can make it fit financially, I could be interested,” Dana Brown said. “Most of all, the priority is a backup catcher and bullpen. And I think that kind of sets us up for at least getting back to the postseason, potentially winning the division and going deep again. If we get that starter, it may make it a little easier.”

Astros assistant general manager Gavin Dickey, who was among a handful of front-office promotions announced by Brown last week, will oversee the club’s player development department next year, Brown said. Originally hired by the Astros as an area scout in 2011, Dickey has been with the organization in a variety of roles, also serving as a regional crosschecker, national crosschecker and special assignment scout.

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