At the end of the 2024 minor league season, the Chicago Cubs fired four scouts while “slashing their budget,” in an apparent restructuring of their scouting infrastructure and approach (a trend that continues more broadly across the league). In addition to those dismissals, the Cubs told their pro scouting department that they would no longer scout games at any level except the complex league and Dominican Summer League. And it seems some in the industry have taken notice.
Baseball America recently polled 27 scouts from across the league, including pro, amateur, and international ranks, granting them full anonymity in exchange for their candor. And the results of those polls do not paint a flattering picture of the Cubs (among many other teams, but we care most about the Cubs around here).
I’ll encourage you to first go check out the full article at Baseball America, because I won’t be sharing all of their replies and results. But I did want to highlight a few key bits. Generally speaking though, morale among scouts across the league is BLEAK.
Here are just some of the replies when these 27 scouts were asked how they’d assess the current state of scouting around the league:
“Under attack and underappreciated.” “Undervalued and misunderstood by ownership and decision-makers. Too many cooks in the kitchen.” “Bad vibes all around. Worry from young to old about the future of the profession and the overall health of the game.”And there are also many more results and replies to the following questions, if you’d like to go look at the replies:
How Concerned Are You About Job Security With Your Team? How Much Do You Think Your Organization Values Your Opinions On Players Or Puts Weight On Your Scouting Reports? What Is Your Confidence In The State Of Scouting Moving Forward?But now to the poll results.
When 26 scouts were asked which organizations are the most scout-friendly, the Dodgers (21 mentions), Padres (19), and Royals (15) were the most frequently identified. By contrast, the Angels, Astros, Brewers, Cardinals, Mariners, and Twins received only one mention each. The Cubs (along with the Guardians, Mets, Orioles, and Red Sox) received exactly ZERO votes.
When BA asked that question a different way – “Which organizations are the LEAST scout friendly?” – the Cubs (along with the Braves) received seven votes. And the only teams ahead of them were the Guardians (13), Brewers/Orioles (12), and Astros/Marlins/Red Sox (10).
Now, that’s obviously the opinion of only 27 specific people, for whom we have no idea their motivations, history, overall information/insight, or any preconceived biases. But it’s not terribly difficult to see what’s happening here. The teams that are seen as the least scout-friendly — especially the Guardians, Brewers, Cubs, Braves, Astros, and Red Sox — are among the teams we often think of as having more analytically-driven front offices (and that doesn’t carry the same positive connotation it did 10 years ago). And note that Cubs leadership — specifically president Jed Hoyer (Cubs and Red Sox), GM Carter Hawkins (Cubs and Guardians), AGM Ehsan Bokhari (Cubs and Astros), and manager/kinda-sorta-front-office-helper Craig Counsell (Cubs and Brewers) — has ties to five of those teams. So the trajectory/trend here isn’t all that surprising.
But it’s not like the teams identified as the most scout-friendly are particularly old school. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. The Dodgers (21 votes for most scout-friendly) and Rays (9 votes for most scout-friendly) are often seen as two of the most forward-thinking front offices in baseball.
To that end, when these scouts were asked which organizations are the best at identifying talent, the Dodgers (20), Padres (15), and Rays (12) were the leaders in the industry. It’s not terribly surprising to see scouts suggest that the most scout-friendly teams are the best at identifying talent (correct or not, that’s a pretty clear bias), but it’s still striking. Especially because the Cubs once again received ZERO votes.
Flipping that question around once again, and the results are similar. When asked which teams were the worst at identifying talent, the Cubs popped up on the list:
White Sox — 50% (12) Athletics — 46% (11) Angels/Marlins — 38% (9) Rockies — 33% (8) Blue Jays — 21% (5) Guardians — 17% (4) Cubs/Nationals/Reds/Red Sox — 13% (3)Now, I’m not here to dump on the Cubs based on one poll of 27 scouts who may feel negatively towards the Cubs after their recent round of dismissals (or may simply not have a total picture on what they ARE doing from the outside). Indeed, I’d argue the Cubs have done fairly well in the draft over the last four/five years (in large part, I suspect, because of the success of VP of Scouting Dan Kantrovitz), so at least there’s that.
And that’s to say nothing of recent wins they’ve had on the international pro (Seiya Suzuki, Shota Imanaga) side in recent years.
It’s also fair to point out that the ubiquity of technology – video and even advanced game tracking systems available at many more minor league parks – has justifiably reduced the need for as many scouts as there used to be. That’s just a reality. But I don’t want to just hand-wave this all away, either.
(via Cubs)Leaning too far in any one evaluative direction – i.e. an over-reliance on either analytics OR scouting – is never a good thing. If this poll were ranking the most analytically advanced organizations and the Cubs were being overly-represented for their efforts, I’d point out the same. You need to be balanced. But for now, at least according to this one poll, it seems the Cubs may be coming up short on that balance. Something to keep an eye on, I suppose, as the organization continues to evolve over the coming years.
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