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SAN DIEGO -- As his team moves closer to its seventh American League West title in eight years, Astros general manager Dana Brown sat down at Petco Park prior to Tuesday’s game against the Padres and took time to answer some questions.

MLB.com: When do you start talking about your postseason roster and rotation and what goes into those decisions?

Brown: “We feel like we’re going to get in, but you’d rather wait a little bit longer and give the guys a chance to show you what they can do. And so then you’ll start having discussions. The first discussion will be more so about the rotation. How do you plan to attack that? Then you kind of know what your depth will be out of the bullpen and then you get into the position players. What’s your projected starting rotation vs. righties? Vs. lefties? And then maybe get into the extra players. Of course, after you do the starting pitching, you have the relievers to look over. We’ll have some really tough conversations.”

MLB.com: Considering the number of extra games the Astros played over the last few years -- their 97 postseason games since 2017 are 24 more than any other team -- how do you think your pitching is equipped for another deep run?

Brown: “One of the big things for us is being able to go to a six-man rotation a few times during this year. You roll out the six-man and give some guys a breather, and that allows you to go a little deeper into the postseason. We would like to give our guys some rest. It would be nice to give the position players a rest if we could clinch sooner. That would help us a bit, as well. There are a few ways to do it. You have to try to find some down time and rest for all these guys.”

MLB.com: What gave you the confidence early in the season this club would turn things around?

Brown: “I’ve been in baseball for 35 years and I know what a bad team looks like. I knew we were a good team and so I was pretty confident that we would turn it around, because in my career I’ve seen what some bad teams look like and this team did not look like a bad team at all.”

MLB.com: Did you know the trade for Yusei Kikuchi would be met with an unfavorable reaction, and what gave you the confidence it would be a good deal?

Brown: “I figured there would be minimal backlash in giving up young prospects. I guess I didn’t anticipate the heavy backlash, and I felt like the players that we gave up were pretty good prospects. Even those prospects still had some obstacles, and I knew we had to get a starter. … We [felt] like Kikuchi was really good and we could tweak his arsenal and change some of his usage. It was a team effort that we all put together. We made the acquisition, the pitching coaches made the changes and it’s working out. Hopefully, we’ll get to see him in multiple postseason games.”

MLB.com: You have said a few times free agent-to-be Alex Bregman would get a contract offer from the Astros. Where does that stand?

Brown: “We were in Anaheim the other day and I ran into [agent Scott Boras] and we started talking a little bit, and we both said, ‘Look, once we get towards the end of the season and things are over, we’ll definitely engage and talk about it.’ We had a small conversation about it. Right now, we’re not in any discussions about contract offers. We both agreed we will meet back up.”