Back in December, we posted about former Pittsburgh Pirates prospect Rudy Guzman and a lawsuit he had against the Pirates for $10 M. Word now comes out of the Dominican that four scouts who were let go recently, have an ongoing lawsuit against the Pirates for failure to pay full benefits.
The lawsuit was filed on March 18th according to this source (link is in Spanish). The lawyers for the scouts filed a claim for payment of labor benefits for the cause of “insufficient eviction and compensation for damages”. The case will be heard in early September in the Dominican.
The bigger news in this lawsuit is the fact that the Pirates dismissed scout Juan Mercado back in January because that has a direct impact on the talent they put on the field. Mercado has been instrumental in numerous key signings for the Pirates in the Dominican since being hired in November 2011. Another scout named in the lawsuit with Mercado, Christiano Valdez, also helped in some key signings over the years.
We already knew that the Pirates hired one of the most respected scouts in Venezuela since Junior Vizcaino took over the Latin American Scouting Director spot from Rene Gayo, but it appears they also made wholesale changes in their scouting department in the Dominican. We probably won’t know whether that’s a good thing or not for many years as the newer players they sign enter the system.
