TORONTO – Alex Anthopoulos continued his makeover of the Toronto Blue Jays’ front office by luring Dana Brown from the Washington Nationals to serve as a special assistant to the general manager.
The hiring, which is expected to be announced Tuesday, was confirmed Monday by a source requesting anonymity to The Canadian Press.
Brown mentored Anthopoulos while both were with the Montreal Expos at the start of the decade, but remained with the club as it moved to Washington, serving as its director of amateur scouting.
Anthopoulos, a Montreal native, joined the Blue Jays after the 2003 season, climbing up the organization until he was named general manager in place of the fired J.P. Ricciardi a week and a half ago.
Brown was hired as Expos scouting director in 2002 after working eight years in scouting for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Players drafted under his watch include all-star third baseman Ryan Zimmerman, Chad Cordero, Chris Marrero, Ross Detwiler and, this past summer, Stephen Strasburg.
His hiring comes on the heels of a major shuffle of the scouting and player development departments announced Friday.
That shakeup led to the firing of farm director Dick Scott, one of Ricciardi’s first hires, Pacific Rim scouting head Rob Ducey and triple-A Las Vegas 51s manager Mike Basso.
It also put player development under the guidance of Tony LaCava, another Ricciardi holdover, who remains assistant general manager but is now the No. 2 man under Anthopoulos.
More changes are expected in the coming weeks as Anthopoulos continues a methodical review of the entire operation.
