Latin American scouting director fired

Gayo facing discipline from MLB

The Pirates have let go Rene Gayo, the director of Latin American scouting who was responsible for finding Starling Marte and Gregory Polanco, because of an investigation into financial impropriety, according to a source.

“We informed Rene that we would not be renewing his contract upon its expiration next month and thanked him for his efforts on behalf of the Pirates,” general manager Neal Huntington said in a statement. “As an organization, we concluded that we needed to move in a new and different direction with our Latin American scouting leadership. We will immediately begin an exhaustive search aimed at securing the very best leader for our Latin American scouting operations.”

Reached by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Gayo, who joined the Pirates in 2004, declined to comment.

According to The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal, who first reported the story, the financial issue related to a kickback from a Mexican Summer-League team.

“We had been apprised of Major League Baseball’s investigation into alleged [r]ules violations committed by Rene during his tenure with the Pirates and the fact that MLB intends to discipline Rene as a result of those violations,” Huntington said. “Other than confirming our profound disappointment in the breach of trust that was the subject of MLB’s investigation, we will have no further comment on the investigation or MLB’s in-tended discipline.”

Gayo signed Polanco in 2009, Marte in 2007 and also is responsible for signing Edgar Santana, Elias Diaz and Jose Osuna.