Major League Baseball

Pirates: MLB to discipline Latin American scouting head

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 12:05 p.m. ET

PITTSBURGH (AP) The Pittsburgh Pirates say Major League Baseball intends to discipline their director of Latin American scouting for rules violations, and the team announced it will not renew Rene Gayo's contract when it expires next month.

The Pirates said in a statement Wednesday they have a ''profound disappointment in the breach of trust that was the subject of MLB's investigation.''

The Athletic reported Gayo accepted an improper payment.

Pittsburgh says ''we concluded that we needed to move in a new and different direction with our Latin American scouting leadership.''

Gayo, 50, was in his 14th season with the Pirates after working for Cleveland as an area scout from 1993-2000 and as director of international scouting and Latin American cross-checker through 2003. He signed Willy Taveras, Edward Mujica, Danys Baez and Jhonny Peralta for the Indians, and Gregory Polanco and Starling Marte for the Pirates

Gayo worked as a part-time scout for the Pirates from 1989-92 and Texas in 1993. In his lone professional season as a player, Gayo appeared in 12 games for the rookie level Gulf Coast Reds in 1987.

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