With the 2026 international signing period set to begin on Jan. 15, the Yankees are still searching for their next international scouting director, two sources told the Daily News this week.
The sources were granted anonymity so that they could speak freely.
One source in the organization said that the Yankees have only “started” conducting interviews as they look to replace longtime director Donny Rowland, who was not retained when his contract expired at the end of the season. The team is not particularly close to naming his successor.
The Yankees have interviewed internal and external candidates for the job. One source said that the group includes, but is not limited to, former Marlins and Astros scouting exec turned Rice University professor Oz Ocampo; Cardinals special assistant to the general manager for player procurement Matt Slater; and Yankees director of baseball development Mario Garza.
Independent reporter Francys Romero also said that former Rays vice president of baseball operations Carlos Rodriguez was a candidate for the position before taking an assistant GM job with the White Sox.
The Yankees’ ongoing search is being handled by the typical front office contingent that interviews new personnel, which includes general manager Brian Cashman. Omar Minaya, a baseball operations senior advisor who worked as a scouting director and Latin American scouting coordinator earlier in his career, is also part of the search party, which one source said has taken an unusually long time to make a hire.
“I would think that most people would probably think that,” they continued, though the other source said that they didn’t have much to compare the timeline to because Rowland had been the Yankees’ international scouting director for 15 years.
While Rowland helped the Yankees land Jasson Domínguez and had some success with cheaper signings like Oswaldo Cabrera, Luis Severino, Miguel Andujar and Carlos Lagrange, the club moved on after awarding multi-million-dollar bonuses to numerous international prospects who didn’t or have yet to pan out. Examples include Class of 2019 shortstop Alexander Vargas ($2.5 million), 2023 outfielder Brando Mayea ($4.35 million) and 2022 shortstop Roderick Arias ($4 million), though the list is much longer and dates back years.
In November, Cashman didn’t provide a direct answer when asked what prompted the end of Rowland’s tenure, simply calling it a “difficult decision.” However, both sources said Rowland’s exit came down to results, opposed to anything being below board.
One specifically mentioned “bad performance” and not “getting the bang for our buck.”
Attempts to reach Rowland have not been successful since his ouster.
Rowland was not the only casualty of the Yankees’ international scouting makeover, as one source confirmed that Edgar Mateo is no longer employed by the team. Mateo served as an assistant to Rowland for Latin American scouting.
Wilber Sánchez first reported Mateo’s departure.
With the Yankees still looking for a new director, one source said that the team has not parted with any other members of its international scouting department thus far. Both sources also said that a report claiming that the Yankees canceled all of their agreements with members of this year’s international free agent (IFA) class is false.
Some agreements made under Rowland’s watch have been rescinded, but not all.
Alas, the Yankees are not expected to sign one of MLB Pipeline‘s top-50 prospects in this year’s IFA class. They were previously expected to sign three such players, including Dominican shortstop Wandy Asigen, who is ranked second overall.
The 16-year-old is now expected to sign with the Mets for about $3.8 million once the signing period opens.
Word of Asigen’s flipped commitment left some Yankees fans alarmed over the undirected state of the team’s international scouting department. However, it was Asigen’s camp that backed out of a similar deal with the Yankees, and one source doubted that his decision had anything to do with the Bombers’ lack of an international scouting director.
“There’s been plenty of players who signed over the years with places that were considered much more unstable than the Yankees have historically been in this international market,” they said. “So it probably was just a change, which can happen. Nothing’s done until it’s done, and I think that’s what everybody should learn from this.”
The other source said the situation worked out for both sides, as the Yankees soured on Asigen after Rowland left the organization and “did not like the choices and investments that were being made.”
On that note, there’s been some speculation that the events of this offseason, particularly those withdrawn agreements, could hurt the Yankees with future IFA classes, as relationships are built with academies, trainers and players years before the latter are eligible to sign. Theoretically, relevant parties could see the Yankees going back on agreements for this class and hold that against them down the road.
But with Asigen initially poised to take up the majority of the team’s 2026 bonus pool and the Yankees’ international scouting department going through a regime change, the sources who spoke to The News downplayed such concerns.
“[When] new leadership comes in, and with Cash’s backing, I think that people will realize that that just happened the one time,” one said. “It’s not where you’re going to be consistently considered a team that’s going to pull the rug out from under you unless there was a proper reason.”
