The Cincinnati Reds announced four promotions within their front office and scouting departments on Monday afternoon. For two of the men who got promotions they may actually be true promotions rather than title inflation.
Brad Meador has been promoted to Vice President/Assistant General Manager, Scouting & Player Development. Meador had previously been the Director of Amateur Scouting (the guy who would essentially run the draft, was the top of all of the scouting on the domestic side of things). He has been with the Reds for 13 seasons and had been the Director of Amateur Scouting from 2019-2021.
Taking over as the Director of Amateur Scouting is Joe Katuska. He had previously been the Assistant Director of Scouting and was the National Crosschecker. Katuska had been in those roles for the previous three seasons, and has been with the organization for 17 seasons.
Rob Coughlin has gone from Director of Professional Scouting to Senior Director of Professional Scouting. Before this there was no one above Coughlin in terms of the professional scouting side of things, so this feels like title inflation more than a true promotion. He’s been with the organization for 14 years and like both Katuska and Meador, had been in his current role for the previous three seasons.
The same thing can be said for Trey Hendricks. He has gone from Director of International Scouting to Senior Director of International Scouting. Like Coughlin, no one was above him in the department prior to the move. Hendricks, like the others, had been in his current role for the previous three years. Before joining the Reds he had worked in scouting for both the Texas and Cleveland organizations.
With Brad Meador’s title, things are a little bit unclear at the moment in terms of what VP of Scouting and Player Development actually means. That’s not a job that really existed before now, at least in terms of being a title given to someone with those specific responsibilities. How his influence/management trickles down over the draft, the international side of things, and pro scouting is something that may be tough to see from the outside, but could be felt within the organization.
It’s hard to know who’s responsible for what in Major League Baseball front offices, but I can see why Brad meadows and Katsuka were promoted. The 2020 and 2021 drafts were very good. It appears there are several major league contributors in both – which is rare. These guys appear responsible so sign me up for more of that. I’d also like to see some international promotion. Our international signings and development of those guys has dramatically improved also.
The “international ” scouting has been good and bad for the Reds over the years. It seems like we have good spells, and then dry spells.
I think International Scouting could be concentrated in the Dominican Republic, as a great many good and great ML Players have come from there (Johnny Cueto for one)
If Cuba ever really truly opens up, there are a LOT of potentially good and great ML players that could come from Cuba. (Tony Perez, Aroldis Chapman, Raisel Iglesias, to name three)
Good players out of Venezuela are kind of hit and miss.
And that leaves Asia: Taiwan, South Korea and Japan. I honestly don’t know if the effort needed here is equal to the return in terms of good players to be signed or drafted.
The Reds had deep roots in Cuba prior to the island being closed to the US. The Havana Sugar Kings were their AAA affiliate from 1954-60 (1960 being when the Cuban government of Fidel Castro nationalized all US owned businesses).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havana_Sugar_Kings
In addition to Perez, Leo Cárdenas, Chico Ruiz, Cookie Rojas, Toney González and others came up with the Reds during the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. Some played with the Kings, others were discovered elsewhere on the Island.
And there is of course all the folklore about how the history of Cuba and the world might have been different had Fidel Castro had a little bit more on his fastball or been a better hitter when he supposedly tried out for the Reds farm system before getting on with what became his life’s pursuit.
Jim as Bob Hope use to sing “Thanks For the Memories”. Chico Cardenas was one of my favorites as a kid. Doesn’t the Reds have a Fidel Castro in the minors?
Enjoy your time up there guys. When the team is sold they will probably clean house. Has to by why they are clearing out salaries. Gonna lose a lot of the long time fans with this management approach.