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Saturday, August 19, 2023

Mark DelPiano showed his work ethic as player, coach, scout

Marc DelPiano 1990 Watertown Indians card

Marc DelPiano started his new career in 1995 - scouting - and he spoke with the paper where he'd worked as a coach the previous summer about his career goals.

"To be the best area scout in baseball is my goal," DelPiano told The Poughkeepsie Journal. "I want to continue that process and apply the same work ethic in scouting as I did in coaching."

DelPiano went into scouting - and coaching - after his own brief career as a player. He saw two seasons and made single-A. He then went on to briefly coach, then scout. His scouting career ultimately saw him become Marlins vice president for player development.

DelPiano's career began in 1989, signed by the Indians as an undrafted free agent out of the University of Tennessee. DelPiano was also credited as Marc Del Piano.

He played his first year largely at rookie Burlington. He saw 42 games there and hit .227. He also saw one game at single-A Kinston.

For 1990, he started at short-season Watertown, but isn't recorded as playing in a game. Instead, he moved to he Astros and short-season Auburn. He hit .250 in 13 games to end his career.

He then moved to coaching. He coached at Auburn in 1991 and at short-season Erie in 1993. By then, he already worked as a scout with the Rangers. In 1994, he served as a coach at short-season Hudson Valley.

DelPiano then turned full-time scout. He served with the Rangers, Marlins, then the Red Sox and the Pirates. He served as director of player development for the Marlins in 2003 and as special assignment scout for the Red Sox on 2007.

In 2015, he returned to the Marlins as vice president of player development

"I think the difference is they've put an emphasis on player development," DelPiano told MLB.com upon his return to Miami. "Not that they didn't do that in the past, but it was a means to get players to the big leagues as quickly as possible, where I think here, we're going to have more of a process-oriented approach."

In 2021, he was with the Yankees. He helped the Yankees sign free agent Corey Kluber, who went on to throw a no-hitter for the Yankees that year.

"You're always trying to figure out what a guy is now and what he could be," DelPiano told Forbes after the no-hitter. "You're always trying to be very calculated. I've never felt comfortable just winging it. You try to think through things logically, and he did well in the benchmarks that were important to us."

Marc DelPiano 1990 Watertown Indians card

1990 Minor League Tally 
Players/Coaches Featured:4,207
Made the Majors:1,380-32.8%
Never Made Majors:2,827-67.2%-X
5+ Seasons in the Majors:561
10+ Seasons in the Minors:344

1 comment:

  1. Nice that he gets credit for Kluber's signing. But I wonder then, how much of the current Yankee mess would he get blamed for? Got to figure if the Yankees clean house after the season he might get affected.

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