Angels hire Tim McIlvaine as their new scouting director
The Angels have made their first big hire of the offseason.
Tim McIlvaine will be the club’s new scouting director, according to a person with knowledge of the situation who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly. ESPN first reported the news.
McIlvaine replaces Matt Swanson, who had led the Angels scouting department in the past five drafts.
McIlvaine, 40, spent the past 16 seasons with the Milwaukee Brewers, working his way up from area scout to supervisor of amateur scouting to assistant director of domestic scouting. He’d been in the latter role since the 2017 season.
Angels two-way star Shohei Ohtani won Players Choice Awards for MLB player of the year and American League Outstanding Player of the Year.
The son of former San Diego Padres and New York Mets general manager Joe McIllvaine, Tim was a former catcher who spent one year playing in the Minnesota Twins organization in 2004.
He’s the second Brewers executive to be hired away by Angels general manager Perry Minasian, after director of player personnel Ray Montgomery came to Anaheim last offseason.
McIlvaine will be tasked with helping the Angels improve a farm system that was ranked 24th this year by MLB Pipeline and has struggled to supplement the MLB roster with enough young talent to turn the team into a true contender in recent seasons.
Pitching has been a particular area of need for the team, one it tried to address by using all 20 of its picks in this past summer’s draft — Minasian’s first in charge of the club, and Swanson’s last heading up the scouting department — on pitchers, including 19 college arms.
With McIlvaine on board, the Angels still have a couple of openings on the coaching staff to address this offseason, after they parted ways with infield/third base coach Brian Butterfield and catching coach José Molina earlier this month.
The Atlanta Braves’ recent October success can be attributed to Angels GM Perry Minasian’s involvement when he was recently with the club.
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