The Orioles stayed in-house to fill a key function of their baseball operations division.
After shedding director of draft operations Brad Ciolek to the Washington Nationals earlier this month, Baltimore on Thursday elevated Matt Blood to supervise the Orioles’ draft operations, amongst different participant development-related duties, amid a flurry of promotions by the membership.
Blood, who joined the Orioles in September 2019, has been the group’s director of participant improvement for the previous 4 years. His new title is vp of participant improvement and home scouting. In addition to overseeing draft operations, he’ll supervise the Orioles’ participant improvement and scouting operations.
Blood was one in every of a dozen members of Baltimore’s baseball operations division to be promoted Thursday. Replacing Blood as director of participant improvement is Anthony Villa, who spent the 2023 season because the Orioles’ minor league hitting coordinator, a supply with direct information confirmed to The Baltimore Sun. Villa performed within the Chicago White Sox’s minor league system from 2016 to 2018 and joined the Orioles as a coach in November 2019. He served as hitting coach for High-A Aberdeen in 2020 and the Orioles’ Florida Complex League crew in 2021 earlier than transitioning to the group’s lower-level hitting coordinator in 2022. MASNSports.com first reported Villa’s promotion.
As Baltimore’s farm director, Blood helped the Orioles’ minor league system turn into the game’s finest. Baltimore has boasted the No. 1 prospect on Baseball America’s prime 100 listing getting into the earlier two seasons with Adley Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson, and 19-year-old Jackson Holliday is presently rated by the publication as the game’s prime prospect. Six Orioles prospects are inside Baseball America’s prime 100.
Before becoming a member of the Orioles, Blood was director of participant improvement for the Texas Rangers in 2019 and spent the earlier three years as director of USA Baseball’s 18 and Under National Team Program. He obtained his begin in skilled baseball as an space scout with the St. Louis Cardinals from 2009 to 2015. Orioles government vp and common supervisor Mike Elias joined the Cardinals as a scout in 2007 and was their supervisor of beginner scouting in 2010, whereas Baltimore’s vp and assistant common supervisor of analytics Sig Mejdal labored in St. Louis’ analytics division from 2005 to 2011.
Ciolek left for Washington after spending greater than a decade with the Orioles. He had overseen every of the 5 drafts since Elias was employed in November 2018. He joined the Nationals as their senior director of beginner scouting, a transfer Washington publicly introduced Wednesday.
Among the opposite promotions, Koby Perez, one in every of Elias’ first hires, was elevated from senior director of worldwide scouting to his new title of vp of worldwide scouting and operations. Mike Snyder, a holdover from the earlier regime, was promoted from director of professional scouting to senior director of professional scouting.
The different promotions embrace: Gerardo Cabrera from Latin American supervisor to director of Latin American scouting; Kevin Carter from senior professional scouting analyst to supervisor of professional scouting; Hendrik Herz from senior scouting analyst to supervisor of home scouting evaluation; Chad Tatum from senior scouting analyst to supervisor of home scouting; Will Robertson from senior professional scouting analyst to particular project scout; and Alex Tarandek from scouting analyst to senior scouting analyst. Michael Weis was named senior information scientist of draft analysis, whereas Maria Arellano was named senior supervisor of worldwide operations and baseball administration.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com