Bucs Hire Baseball Operations Staff

The Pittsburgh Pirates today solidified their Baseball Operations Department leadership team with the hiring of Greg Smith as Director of Scouting, Kyle Stark as Director of Player Development and promoting Bryan Minniti to Director of Baseball Operations.

“I felt it was crucial to build a leadership team of talented individuals with impeccable character, a diverse set of professional experiences and high upside that will complement me and help us build a consistent winner in Pittsburgh,” said Pirates General Manager Neal Huntington. “Greg, Kyle and Bryan are talented baseball men, but more importantly will form a cohesive team that, working closely with John Russell and his Major League staff, will acquire and develop championship players.”

Smith, 41, is a 16-year scouting veteran, having spent the last 11 seasons with the Detroit organization. He has worked for the last three years as the club’s special assignment scout. Prior to that, Smith spent eight seasons (1997-2004) as Detroit’s Director of Scouting where he oversaw the First-Year Player Draft and international scouting. He also simultaneously served as the Club’s Director of Player Development from 2000-2002. Prior to joining the Tigers organization, Smith spent seven years (1990-96) as an area scout with the San Diego Padres, covering areas from Florida to Maryland.

“Greg is an experienced talent evaluator, intelligent leader and strong communicator. Our philosophies are aligned with respect to departmental structure, staff attributes, player evaluation methods and draft strategies,” said Huntington. “Greg has outstanding leadership skills and he is a scouting director who understands the importance of supplementing subjective evaluations with the most advanced objective talent evaluation tools. With his strong and diverse background in amateur, international, professional scouting and player development, Greg’s impact on the Pirates will go well beyond amateur scouting.”

Under Smith’s guidance, the Tigers selected 2006 American League Rookie of the Year Justin Verlander with the second overall pick in the 2004 Draft. Smith and his staff were rated by Baseball America as having the strongest draft of all 30 major league clubs in 2002, a year in which the club selected outfielder Curtis Granderson in the third round and right-handed pitcher Joel Zumaya in the 11th round. Additionally, Greg was directly responsible for the signing of Jair Jurrjens as a non-drafted free agent out of Curacao. During Smith’s tenure as Director of Scouting, the Tigers signed and developed over 40 players who reached the Major League level.

Prior to joining the Tigers, Greg spent seven years (1990-1996) as an area scout with the San Diego Padres. A 1988 graduate from Vanderbilt University, Greg signed with the Padres and played three seasons in the minor leagues.

Stark, 29, spent the last four years in Cleveland’s Baseball Operations department, assisting in all areas of Scouting, Player Development and Major League Operations. In the last two years, Kyle performed the baseball related duties of the Assistant Farm Director, oversaw the club’s efforts in Pacific Rim Scouting and coordinated the club’s Advanced Scouting and provided supplemental Advance Scouting reports.

“Kyle is an extremely talented young executive with a very high upside. He served a valuable role in Cleveland’s baseball operations department and is ready to lead our player development system,” said Huntington. “Kyle is a quality evaluator who effectively utilizes both subjective and objective evaluation tools. He will immediately implement and supervise a written development plan system for each of our minor league players to ensure a consistent and structured approach to instruction throughout the organization. Kyle understands from his work in Cleveland that success is best achieved when there is cohesiveness between scouting, player development and Major League Operations.”

A 1999 graduate from Ball State University, Stark received a law degree from the University of Toledo in 2002 and a master’s degree in Business Administration from St. Bonaventure in 2004. In his two years at St. Bonaventure, he also served as Pitching Coach for the baseball team.

Minniti, 27, has spent seven seasons as a member of the Pirates Baseball Operations department, most recently as the Coordinator of Baseball Operations. Bryan, a 2002 graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, will be responsible for managing the Major League Rules & Regulations, along with the Waivers and Transactions for the club. In addition, he will assist Huntington in preparation and negotiation for all salary arbitration cases and contract negotiations for players with less than three years of service time. Bryan will also oversee the departmental information technology programs.

“Bryan is also a talented young executive with a quality upside. He has been vital during the transition process in the Baseball Operations Department. Additionally, he has worked in most areas of the department and is clearly ready to play a more prominent role,” said Huntington. “His strengths are a great complement and allow me to work closely with our scouting and development directors to implement our systems efficiently and effectively.”