White Sox Shake Up Scouting Department Leadership With Promotion Of Nick Hostetler
(CBS) The White Sox have a new leader for their scouting department.
Nick Hostetler, 37, has been promoted to director of amateur scouting, the team announced Monday afternoon. He'll take over for Doug Laumann, the 58-year-old who will now be a senior advisor to scouting operations after spending the last eight years the the director of amateur scouting.
Hostetler will be tasked with overhauling a White Sox farm system that entered the 2015 season ranked 20th in MLB by Baseball America and which has struggled for more than a decade to produce homegrown position players.
"As an organization, we are incredibly fortunate to have someone with Nick's qualifications prepared to step right into the role of director of amateur scouting with this promotion," White Sox general manager Rick Hahn said in a statement. "His ability to scout and judge talent are well respected within the game, and Nick has been successful in every scouting role he has experienced during his career.
"We also are excited to retain Doug's wealth of experience within our scouting department. Doug will continue to be incredibly valuable to all of our scouts as we use his expertise across a variety of scouting needs."
Hostetler has been the team's assistant scouting director since 2012. He worked his way to this point by being an area scout (for the White Sox from 2002-'04 and the Braves from 2005-'07) and then an East Coast cross-checker (for the White Sox from 2008-'11).
Hostetler is credited with the scouting of right-hander Daniel Hudson (2008), infielder Gordon Beckham (2008), left-hander Chris Sale (2010) and infielder Micah Johnson (2012), among others.
"I'm extremely excited and grateful for this opportunity," Hostetler said in a statement. "With the emphasis the organization has placed on player development, I'm really looking forward to the challenge of building on that foundation in the years to come."
Laumann has been with the White Sox since 1990.
