The Round Rock Express is once again affiliated with the Houston Astros.
The teams agreed to a four-year contract, the longest permitted under baseball’s collective bargaining agreement.
The Express was founded in 2000 by Reid Ryan, who is now the Astros’ president of business operations. The franchise served as the Astros’ AA affiliate from 2000-04 and then as its AAA affiliate from 2005-10. The Astros' Triple-A affiliate had been in Fresno for the past four seasons. Round Rock was the AAA affiliate for the Texas Rangers until this week.
Dell Diamond is only 170 miles from Houston. Ryan says, “"It makes it easier on all of our [Minor League] rovers, our coaches, our player development people. It also makes it easier for us in Houston when we need a player. The (Corpus Christi) Hooks and Express are going to be close if we need one of them to get to the Astros quickly.”