SF Giants rebuild scouting department with experienced talent evaluators

The SF Giants followed a trend that has been all too common in baseball in recent years. They let go of four scouts near the end of the 2024 season. Since then, they have added a handful of experienced scouts, headlined by Justin Pope and Donnie Veal.

SF Giants rebuild scouting department with experienced talent evaluators

Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area first reported that the Giants hired six new scouts this offseason.

Buster Posey's biggest opportunity with the Giants will be finding ways of getting more value from the farm system. That starts with how they identify and develop talent.

Over the past 15 years, the Giants have done a poor job at both avenues with Logan Webb and Patrick Bailey being some of the exceptions to this. Posey deserves a lot of credit for building back up the scouting department with experienced talent evaluators.

Many teams are looking for ways to cut costs. However, teams that often have the most success on the field invest in their scouting and analytics departments. Downsizing is a suboptimal choice for a team that has struggled badly in scouting.

The Giants have brought in a lot of experienced scouts, many of whom have prior connected to the new director of pro scouting Hadi Raad. Raad was hired away from the Pittsburgh Pirates organization in December.

Justin Pope worked as a pitching coach with the Miami Marlins for nearly four years before his tenure came to an end in 2023. He tenure with Miami crossed over with Raad as well. Prior to that, he served as a minor league coach with the New York Yankees for 10 years.

Similar to Pope, Donnie Veal has a lot of experience on the pitching side, working as a pitching coordinator for several seasons with the Chicago White Sox. He also worked briefly as a scout with the Yankees.

These hires highlight the Giants' desire to get more pitching acumen back in the organization after so many pitching coaches departed in recent seasons. This includes Brian Bannister, Andrew Bailey, Matt Daniels, and Ethan Katz.

The Giants also brought in Jake Tllinghast, John Stockstill, Steve Boros, and Carmen Carcone. In particular, Boros and Carcone have extensive scouting experience. Boros worked as a scout with Chicago Cubs for 12 years after spending 10 seasons with the Yankees. Carcone served as a scout with the Marlins since 2007 before his tenure came to an end in 2024.

The Giants also brought in a familiar name in Colin Sabean as an amateur scout. Sabean is the son of longtime Giants executive Brian Sabean.