Scouting Bureau Cuts Ties With Remaining Scouts

Add the Major League Scouting Bureau to the list of victims of MLB’s ongoing restructuring. The Bureau laid off its last five scouts last week in a revamping that will eliminate the actual evaluation of players, but will still provide teams with videos of players and medical reports.

The Bureau eliminated its professional scouting department in recent years, but a year ago made the decision to retain five amateur scouts for at least one more year. With a major revamping that is going on throughout MLB the five scouts were given notice on March 12.

An MLB official did confirm that the underlying factor is that the 30 teams indicated they were relying on their own scouting departments more and did not make use of the Bureau’s reports.

The final scouts to be let go were Dan Dixon, who had been with the Bureau for more than 35 years; Harry Shelton, a long-time Orioles scout who had been with the Bureau more than 15 years; Rusty Gerhardt, a 30-year-plus veteran of the Bureau staff; Chris Heidt, who had been with the Bureau more than 15 years; and Tom Burns, who was in his fourth year with the Bureau.