Expanding the Mets Scouting Department Internationally
The Mets have done a fantastic job with scouting from an amateur perspective such as the MLB draft, but they have done a very poor job in Major League Scouting and International Scouting specifically the international players that require bidding and posting fees.
Omar Minaya was hired back at the end of 2017 to be a special advisor to then-GM Sandy Alderson. His role was to focus primarily on the international market.
When Minaya was the GM of the Mets he was always trying to be involved in the international market, but the Mets have kind of walked away from that since he was fired back in 2010.
The Mets do a good job for the most part at the teenage international market like signing Amed Rosario, Andres Gimenez, and Ronny Mauricio to name a few, but they lack the results in the Cuban and Asian markets.
Over the past several years players have defected from Cuba or have been posted by Japanese or Korean teams and the Mets were never a team that was connected to anyone.
The likes of Masahiro Tanaka, Yuli Guriel, and more recently Yusei Kikuchi were posted and signed and the Mets were a complete non-factor.
This must change under Steve Cohen.
One way this can be changed is by setting up a scouting department solely for the Asian market. The goal of this would be to devote resources to better attacking that market which has yielded many good MLB players.
The Mets should also devote significant resources to the Cuban market. Many good players have come out of there as well in recent years. No longer should the Mets be out on any player because they do not have the proper personnel to evaluate whether it is worth it or not.
The Mets should initially be in on every player and investing in these new departments will help the Mets better analyze these markets.
As it stands right now the Mets currently have a handful of scouts in the Dominican Republic and Venezuela with a couple in Panama and Mexico. This is great but they have no scouts assigned to Japan, Korea, or China. This is a market the Mets need to get in on and it starts with scouting. If they can tap into these markets who knows where this team can go.
Steve Cohen the hedge fund manager invested the right money in the right places to make himself and his firm successful. Hopefully, Steve Cohen, the owner will do the same and invest the right money in the right markets and departments to create a sustained winner in Flushing.
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