The offseason is one in which many in baseball find themselves looking for new jobs. It’s not just the players, managers, and coaches – but also the scouts around the game who see their contracts end and seek out other opportunities. The Cincinnati Reds were reportedly looking to add an international crosschecker to their scouting system and landed one by picking up David Espinosa. This news was first reported by Jon Heyman of MLB Network on Sunday evening.
Reds hire David Espinosa as international crosschecker. Had been with Marlins. A loss for them.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) October 27, 2019
If that name sounds familiar it should. He was the Reds 1st round pick in the 2000 draft. He was selected 23rd overall out of Gulliver Prep High School in Florida. Espinosa spent two seasons in the Reds organization before he was traded away for Brian Moehler in a deal that included several other players. The infielder would reach Triple-A in 2005, and see future action at the level – but he never reached the Major Leagues. He retired from playing after the 2015 season when he last played independent league baseball for two teams in the American Association.
After retiring he moved into scouting nearly immediately. The Miami Marlins hired him late in 2015 to scout independent league baseball for them. He would later move up their ranks to professional scout, which was his most recent role with the Marlins organization.
What’s not clear here is if the hiring of David Espinosa as international crosschecker is the organization adding to the staff, or if he’s replacing someone. In the US and Canada the Reds have seven scouts listed as crosscheckers. Internationally the organization only had two in 2019. By my count the Reds had 73 scouts, and another 13 listed as scouting consultants within the media guide. That doesn’t include scouts that are listed as special assistants to the GM, but are listed in the professional scouting section of the media guide.
What’s a crosschecker?
While it’s not the only thing that they do, basically the “crosschecker” is the person who will do the “second round” of scouting on a player that the area scout turns in a report on that draws the interest from the organization. They do their own scouting, too – but basically they are the person who will also go double check, get another look, – that type of stuff.
I had no idea the Reds, and presumably every other team, had 70+ scouts. I’d have guessed 20 or 30. It makes me wonder how anyone ever finds a Joey Votto, where one team sees a future star that no one else has discovered. And yet, if you can’t match the other teams you’re missing out. Fascinating stuff.
Here’s the page from the media guide. Let me know that some of this is likely out of date at this point. I’ve heard rumblings, but haven’t been able to confirm that at least one of these guys is no longer employed by the Reds. Still, here’s the structure of what it looks like (you can click the image to be able to get the larger version if you need to/want to read it with more detail)