Some big new broke in advance of tonight's game with the San Francisco Giants, as multiple sources are reporting that the professional scouting department is going through more shakeups, with assistant general manager Ricky Bennett will not be back with the club in his position as director of professional scouting.
Also let go are four pro scouts (Bryan Lambe, Jack Lind, Bob Rossi and Scipio Spinks) along with a handful of amateur scouts who were let go early in the month. We've actually got names on them, and they include the guy who signed George Springer last year, John Kosciak, and the guy who signed Carlos Correa this year, Larry Pardo.
The quote, per McTaggart, from Jeff Luhnow:
"This is a time of year that most baseball operations departments look at the possibility of changes for next year, so we’re doing it as early as possible to give everybody as much time as possible to seek other opportunities," Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow said. "We’re looking top to bottom at the pro scouting department, and we’re going to be restructuring it, and part of the restructuring came with some personnel changes."
Look for more changes to the minor league staff to come after those seasons are over in a couple weeks, I'm betting.
What's more important here is that we get a clearer picture of how involved Mike Elias must have been in this draft. Remember when he got back from seeing Correa in that private workout and suddenly he enters the conversation at 1-1? Sounds like it wasn't really Pardo who sold the front office on Correa as much as Elias became sold on him and the money haggling commenced.
Houston probably won't be able to raid St. Louis much for guys to fill these positions, but with Bennett leaving, there's also a spot open as assistant GM. I wonder if Luhnow will go after some semi-big name like Sandy Alderson did in New York to fill that spot. Or, maybe he's just going after Brad Ausmus. I think Ausmus would slot in nicely to this role and would be a bump from his Special Assistant role in San Diego. Just sayin'.