ORLANDO, Fla. — In an annual spotlight of the Winter Conferences, the Scout of the Yr program celebrates evaluators and directors for his or her contributions to baseball. It did so once more Tuesday night right here, with one of many honorees utilizing the event to announce his retirement.
Padres senior adviser and director of participant personnel Logan White instructed the gathering he’s retiring after greater than 4 a long time within the recreation. He needs to spend extra time together with his youthful sister, who’s battling esophageal most cancers.
Royals particular assistant Tom McNamara (East Coast), Yankees particular assistant Jim Hendry (Midwest) and White (West Coast) had been this 12 months’s home Scouts of the Yr. Royals senior vp/assistant GM Rene Francisco garnered the worldwide award. Tigers director of Minor League and scouting administration Cheryl Evans received the Roberta Mazur distinguished girl in baseball award.
There is no formal mechanism for scouts to be inducted into the Corridor of Fame and no everlasting show in Cooperstown, N.Y., representing their accomplishments. Now in its forty first 12 months and run by Mazur as govt director, the Scout of the Yr program fills that void by recognizing women and men in these roles for his or her accomplishments within the recreation.
White, 63, topped NCAA Division II with 16 victories at Western New Mexico in 1984 earlier than the Mariners drafted him within the twenty third spherical. After three years within the Minors, he grew to become an affiliate scout for Seattle in 1988 and a full-time space scout with the Orioles the next 12 months. He had stints with the Padres (1993-95) and Orioles (1996-2001) as a West Coast crosschecker earlier than changing into Dodgers scouting director in 2002.
In 13 years of working Drafts with Los Angeles, White produced 72 huge leaguers, highlighted by Russell Martin, Chad Billingsley, Matt Kemp, Clayton Kershaw, Nathan Eovaldi, Corey Seager and Cody Bellinger. He additionally oversaw the Dodgers’ worldwide operations in 2011-12 and helped signal Yasiel Puig and Julio Urias. He returned to San Diego in his present function in 2015.
“After 40 years, I exit Main League Baseball with a full coronary heart, a deep sense of pleasure and immense gratitude,” White stated. “I carry with me the teachings, the reminiscences and the relationships which have formed my life. I am excited to embrace the subsequent chapter. Go fishing on a Tuesday is one thing I’ve by no means accomplished, take a cruise in the course of the Draft.
“I wish to savor every second with household and buddies with the identical ardour I delivered to the sport. I depart baseball as I hoped to have lived it, with dedication, integrity and love.”
Here is a better have a look at the opposite award winners:
Tom McNamara, Royals (East Coast)
After stealing 71 bases at NCAA Division II Dominican (N.Y.) in 1988, McNamara spent a 12 months within the Mariners system earlier than changing into an assistant coach at Rockland (N.Y.) CC. Joe Nigro, the scout who signed him, beneficial him for a part-time job scouting for the Pirates in 1993. When Nigro left the Mariners in 1994, McNamara changed him as a full-time space scout earlier than transferring to the Brewers in the identical function (2001-02), the Padres as a professional scout (2003-07) and again to Milwaukee as an East Coast crosschecker in 2008.
McNamara, 58, returned to Seattle as scouting director from November 2008 by way of September 2016, then grew to become a Mariners particular assistant earlier than taking the identical job with the Royals in November 2020. In eight Drafts as scouting director, he landed 48 huge leaguers for the Mariners, together with Kyle Seager, James Paxton, Edwin Diaz, Chris Taylor and 2020 American League Rookie of the Yr Kyle Lewis.
McNamara signed 5 Main Leaguers as an space scout. He says stumping for a bad-bodied highschool first baseman with the seventh general choose within the 2002 Draft helped make his profession.
“It was dangerous with Prince Fielder and folks at all times say he had a unique physique,” McNamara stated. “However I have been doing this for 31 years and he is nonetheless the most effective beginner hitter I ever scouted. I went to each certainly one of his highschool video games. Trying again, the entire Prince Fielder expertise most likely had rather a lot to do with me changing into a scouting director.”
Jim Hendry, Yankees (Midwest)
Hendry, 70, deliberate on pursuing a broadcasting profession after graduating from Spring Hill (Ala.) however gravitated to teaching at Miami’s Columbus Excessive Faculty after which Creighton, the place he arrived as an assistant in 1984 however grew to become head coach halfway by way of that season at age 28. He used a community of huge league scouts to construct the Bluejays right into a Midwest energy, taking them to the Males’s Faculty World Collection (performed minutes from their campus in Omaha, Neb.) in 1991. The Marlins got here calling quickly after, hiring him as a mixture scout/Minor League supervisor.
The Cubs tabbed Hendry as farm director in November 1994 and saved selling him: to scouting director in 1996, to farm and scouting director in 1998, assistant GM in 2000 and GM in July 2002. The one man ever to teach a staff to the Males’s Faculty World Collection and run the baseball operations for a Main League group, Hendry grew to become the primary GM to helm Chicago to consecutive playoff appearances (2007-08). He served 9 years in that function earlier than the Cubs let him go in August 2011, then joined the Yankees as a particular assistant shortly afterward.
“I at all times thought my profession path can be getting Creighton to the Faculty World Collection and ultimately going to teach at Miami and Arizona State earlier than possibly changing into an athletic director,” Hendry stated. “Again then, going from faculty to a professional staff wasn’t lifelike.
“And I beloved being a farm director. For those who had instructed me I would be a farm director for 20 years after which retire, that will have been superior. I by no means obtained into professional ball pondering I might be a GM.”
Rene Francisco, Royals (worldwide)
Francisco, 57, spent two seasons within the Cubs system as an outfielder after they drafted him within the thirty eighth spherical out of Jacksonville in 1989. He says he favored to guage gamers in his thoughts even whereas enjoying, so scouting at all times felt like a pure profession selection. Whereas working as an assistant coach at Palm Seashore (Fla.) Group Faculty, he grew to become an affiliate scout with the Braves in 1992 earlier than changing into a full-time worldwide scout in 1993.
Francisco saved that function and added space scout duties from 1997-99 earlier than changing into Atlanta’s Latin America supervisor from 2000-02. He went to the Dodgers as worldwide scouting director in 2003-05, returned to the Braves in the identical place in 2006 after which moved to the Royals that August. He has run worldwide scouting for Kansas Metropolis beneath numerous job titles ever since, rejuvenating a program that had spent much less cash in Latin America than any of the opposite 29 organizations in the course of the earlier 15 years.
Francisco straight signed 10 huge leaguers for the Braves, most notably Rafael Furcal. As a global director, he helped land eight Main Leaguers for Atlanta (led by Martin Prado), seven for the Dodgers (highlighted by Kenley Jansen, Carlos Santana) and 23 to date for Kansas Metropolis. He discovered Kelvin Herrera for $15,000 within the first Dominican Republic exercise he attended for the Royals, and Salvador Perez for $70,000 within the first Venezuelan exercise.
“I have been a part of successful two World Collection in 1995 and 2015, and 2015 was extra rewarding as a result of I noticed how the Royals made progress from 2006 to 2015,” Francisco stated. “There is no higher feeling than assembly a child and watching their progress within the Minor Leagues to changing into an enormous leaguer. And if you see them not solely get to the massive leagues, however win a World Collection, it is so rewarding.”
Cheryl Evans, Tigers (distinguished girl in baseball)
Evans, 75, was attending Palm Seashore (Fla.) Junior Faculty in 1969, working for the dean of girls and answerable for posting job listings. She observed one for the enlargement Expos with their native Excessive-A affiliate within the Florida State League and wound up claiming the place for herself. She caught with the membership by way of 1975 earlier than leaving as a result of she wanted a job that paid her greater than $50 per week.
An opportunity assembly with former West Palm Seashore Expos colleagues a decade later led Evans again to the Expos and an administrative assistant job of their scouting division (primarily based in Lantana, Fla.) in 1985. She went with a number of members of Montreal’s entrance workplace to hitch the enlargement Marlins in 1991 in the identical place earlier than changing into director of Minor League operations and scouting administration in 2003. She served in that function earlier than briefly retiring in 2004 and transferring to Lakeland, Fla. — the place she quickly grew to become the Tigers’ director of Minor League and scouting administration.
Twenty years later, Evans nonetheless holds the identical job with Detroit and says she’s wanting ahead to her forty sixth 12 months in baseball with no ideas of stopping anytime quickly.
“Profitable two World Collection with the Marlins was magical, however for me, the spotlight of my profession is a bunch of little moments coping with folks over time,” Evans stated. “I like folks. I like when gamers pop into my workplace. I am grateful my mind nonetheless works and my joints nonetheless work. I will keep so long as they will have me.”
