The Pittsburgh Pirates announced a series of baseball operation moves on Friday, including the replacement for Rene Gayo. Junior Vizcaino has been named as the new Director of International Scouting. He spent the 2017 season as the Global Crosschecker for the Boston Red Sox. Prior to that, he worked 17 seasons for the Kansas City Royals, with ten years as their National Supervisor. He began his scouting career with the Atlanta Braves in 1994 after spending four seasons in the minors as a player for the Pirates.
Justin Meccage, who has been the Minor League Pitching Coordinator for the last year, has moved up to become the Assistant Pitching Coach for the Pirates. Prior to 2017, he spent six seasons as a pitching coach at various levels of the minors for the Pirates. He had a brief minor league career (2002-03), followed by seven seasons of college coaching before joining the Pirates.
Steve Williams has been named the Director of Pro Scouting. He has 30 years of scouting experience, including the last eight seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates. He served as their pro supervisor in 2017.
Other moves include:
Sean McNally and Greg Smith have been named as Special Assistants to the General Manager. McNally was a pro scout last year and Smith was an Assistant GM.
Joe Douglas and Justin Newman have been named Baseball Informatics, Quantitative Analysts.
Trey Rose has been named Baseball Operations Assistant.
John Birkbeck and Matt Taylor have been named Scouting Assistant.
UPDATE: Analysis from Tim Williams…
Just a quick thought on Meccage. In the last year he has moved from Altoona pitching coach to Minor League Pitching Coordinator and now to Assistant Pitching Coach in the majors. That rapid progression should be no surprise to those of you who have followed this site for some time, as Meccage has been one of the best and brightest pitching coaches in the system.
One interesting aspect with Meccage being in the majors is his relationship with Tyler Glasnow. He and Glasnow work well together, and some of Glasnow’s best development has come with Meccage as his pitching coach. When Glasnow makes his next jump to the majors, he will once again be reunited with Meccage on a daily basis, which can only help his chances of figuring it all out.
