The Pirates Build: The Amateur Scouting Department

Back in 2016, the Pittsburgh Pirates were prepared to graduate a very talented class of prospects to the majors, which helped their farm system to rate so highly in the previous years. The group included Jameson Taillon, Tyler Glasnow, Josh Bell, and Adam Frazier.

Prior to that season, I started taking a deeper look at the Pittsburgh Pirates’ scouting department. There had been some early draft mistakes by the Pirates, specifically the 2009 draft. In my analysis at the time, I noticed that the Pirates had overhauled their scouting department not long after that draft. The scouts with the bad track records were let go, and the scouts who consistently made solid picks remained.

The “solid picks” are largely based on national talent rankings, rather than the help that was provided to the Pirates. The former is unbiased, looking at the same things scouts would look for. The latter is a result of the Pirates not being able to develop that talent to their full potential.

The Pirates have made a lot of changes to their amateur scouting department since that article. However, they’ve largely kept the core in place.

At the top level, Joe DelliCarri has been the Pirates scouting director since 2012, overseeing every draft since then.

At the National Supervisor level, they’ve had the combo of Jack Bowen and Jimmy Lester for years. Bowen was named to the role at the start of Neal Huntington’s tenure in 2008. Lester joined him in the role in 2010. Both remain in their positions today. The Pirates expanded to a third national crosschecker, adding Matt Ruebel for four years, before moving Ruebel to another position in 2016 and eliminating the third role.

The regional supervisor roles have also remained the same. Jesse Flores had been the long-time regional crosschecker for the West Coast, but just retired after the 2021 season. The Pirates have had Sean Heffernan (Southeast) and Trevor Haley (Midwest) as regional crosscheckers since 2016, when they promoted Rodney Harrison and Everett Russell to pro scouting jobs. Max Kwan joined that group as the Northwest supervisor in 2018, then was promoted to a different role. He currently serves as Assistant Director, Player Personnel, and the North doesn’t have a regional crosschecker.

Heffernan and Haley joined the Pirates as area scouts under Neal Huntington. Heffernan joined in 2012, while Haley joined early in 2008 and has been one of the best scouts in the organization. Kwan joined the organization in 2014 as an area scout, and was quickly promoted to a player development role.

The Pirates promoted other area scouts to different front office roles. Larry Broadway started off as an area scout, before being promoted to farm director in 2012. He’s one of few front office guys who remained in the organization after Neal Huntington and Kyle Stark were fired, and is currently the Pro Evaluation Team Leader. Brian Selman joined the organization as an area scout in 2012, was promoted to the player development staff in 2015, and is currently the Assistant Director, Coaching and Player Development – Strategic Initiatives.

Even with all of that movement, the Pirates have maintained some long-term area scouts.

Long-Term Scouts

The Pirates have kept Rick Allen, Matt Bimeal, and Darren Mazeroski since the end of the Dave Littlefield days. Those three have all been around since 2006, with the following names to their scouting profiles.

Rick Allen – Gerrit Cole, Tyler Glasnow, Kevin Kramer

Matt Bimeal – Mitch Keller, Jordy Mercer, Matt Hague

Darren Mazeroski – Adam Frazier, Clay Holmes, Alex Presley

The Huntington Overhaul

Neal Huntington really overhauled the scouting department after he took over, and five of the scouts from this time period still remain.

Scout – Year Added – Players

Brian Tracy – 2009 – Stetson Allie, Connor Joe, Jared Jones

Anthony Wycklendt – 2010 – Mel Rojas Jr., Quinn Priester, Matt Gorski

Jerry Jordan – 2011 – Austin Meadows, Alex Dickerson, Jack Hartman

Nick Presto – 2012 – Max Moroff, Braeden Ogle, Brad Case

Mike Sansoe – 2012 – Jordan Luplow, Blake Cederlind, Cody Bolton

The Rebuild

The 2015 period saw the Pirates make some changes, as some higher front office people left, and the Pirates replaced them internally from the amateur scouting department. This brought in a new wave of scouts, with five still remaining from 2015-17.

Scout – Year Added – Players

Dan Radcliff – 2015 – Anthony Solometo, Lonnie White Jr., Max Kranick

Derrick Van Dusen – 2015 – Kevin Newman, Nick Gonzales, Matt Fraizer

Adam Bourassa – 2016 – Henry Davis, Jase Bowen, Shea Murray

Wayne Mathis – 2016 – Shane Baz, Jared Triolo, Stephen Alemais

Eddie Charles – 2017 – Michael Burrows, Owen Kellington, Joe Jacques

Consistency

The Pirates have maintained consistency, for the most part. They’ve never had more than 16 area scouts, and half of their current area scouts have been in place since at least 2012. Five more have been in the system since 2015-17, leaving only a few new guys. The final three guys are made up of two Ben Cherington hires, and one final Neal Huntington hire.

Scout – Year Added – Players

Cam Murphy – 2019 – Bubba Chandler, Carmen Mlodzinski, Andres Alvarez

Brett Evert – 2020 – N/A

John Lombardo – 2021 – Jackson Glenn, Brenden Dixon