The reshuffling of the Pirates' front office continued Friday, with promotions, additions and a reassignment.
Greg Smith, formerly one of Neal Huntington's two assistant general managers and second in the baseball operations hierarchy, was reassigned to the role of special assistant to the general manager. Also, Steve Williams was named Director of Pro Scouting, and Junior Vizcaino joined the organization as Director of International Scouting.
At field level, Justin Meccage, who served as minor league pitching coordinator last season, was named a major league assistant pitching coach, and Sean McNally, formerly a major league scout, was promoted to special assistant to the general manager.
The changes come a little over two weeks after the club announced that Rene Gayo, who served as the Pirates' Latin American Scouting Director since 2004, would not have his contract renewed after he was investigated by Major League Baseball for allegedly accepting payment from a Mexican Summer League team. Although Gayo's replacement has yet to be formally named, at least in the same title, the positions now held by Williams and Vizcaino are new and the front office long has sought to include Latin American operations under a broader international umbrella.
Williams, who has 30 years of major league scouting experience, has been with the Pirates since 2010, most recently as a pro supervisor in 2017. Prior to that, Williams served as the Assistant Scouting Director with the Royals (2007-09), the Midwest and East Coast Supervisor with the Tigers (2000-06), an area scout with the Blue Jays (1995-97) and an area scout with the Twins (1988-94).
Vizcaino spent the 2017 season as the global crosschecker for the Red Sox after working 17 years with the Royals, the last 10 as their national supervisor. Following his five seasons (1987-1991) of playing minor league baseball in the Pirates' organization, Vizcaino began his scouting career with Atlanta in 1994.
Smith, who joined the Pirates in 2008 after spending eight seasons with the Tigers' organization, led the club's efforts in the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft from 2008-11 and was promoted to assistant general manager in 2012.
As assistant general manager, Smith provided recommendations to Huntington regarding personnel, strategic planning and decision-making for the baseball operations department. He oversaw all scouting efforts and worked closely with scouting director Joe DelliCarri and the entire scouting staff, including Gayo.
Meccage, meanwhile, joined the organization as a pitching coach with the State College Spikes in 2011 after serving as a pitching coach with Arkansas State for three seasons. He's made a quick ascent, serving as Altoona's pitching coach in 2016 before receiving a promotion to working with pitchers throughout the organization in 2017.
Clint Hurdle and Ray Searage told reporters in 2016 that Meccage would eventually land on a major league staff, so his promotion to working alongside Searage is not much of a surprise. His work with minor league affiliates in 2017 drew praise from Huntington.
In other moves, the Pirates named Joe Douglas and Justin Newman quantitative analysts, Trey Rose a baseball operations assistant, and John Birkbeck and Matt Taylor scouting assistants.