He worked as an assistant in player development for the California Angels during spring training from 1990 to 1992 and headed special projects for the San Diego Padres minor league department in 1991.
He was the assistant GM and director of player development from 1997 to 2004 and was named general manager of the Astros in November 2004, replacing Gerry Hunsicker.
Trades to try and keep the Astros window open a bit longer with the twilight of the careers of Jeff Bagwell and Craig Biggio brought the arrival of Carlos Lee in 2007 on a six-year $100 million deal (backloaded to pay more money in the last years).
[2] Acquisitions by Purpura such as Preston Wilson (signed in 2006 to provide a bat before being DFA'd in August), Woody Williams and Jason Jennings (as done by dealing Willy Taveras) did not pan out.
[5] He was later executive vice president and chief operating office of Minor League Baseball (2008-2011), Texas Rangers senior director of player development (2011-2013), and adjunct professor in SMU's Graduate School of Sports Management (2014-2015).