Orioles Announce Baseball Operations Hires, Promotions

The Orioles announced a series of front office moves Monday, headlined by the hiring of Matt Blood as the team’ new director of player development. Blood has worked previously as the director of player development and baseball innovations with the Rangers and as an area scout in the Cardinals organization. In his new role, Blood “will spearhead staff recruitment, technology programs, and player development strategies throughout the minor leagues,” the Orioles announced.

“Matt has an unrivaled network when it comes to identifying up-and-coming talent, and his his knowledge of the latest trends in the player development sphere will help to keep us on the forefront of this critical area,” general manager Mike Elias said of Blood.

Baltimore also announced several internal promotions. Mike Snyder, who’d previously served as the team’s director of Pacific Rim operations, has been named the Orioles’ new director of pro scouting. Assistant director of scouting Brad Ciolek has been named the team’s new supervisor of domestic scouting operations. Baseball systems developer Di Zou has been named manager of baseball systems and “will continue to assume a growing role in building out the Orioles’ digital workspaces and analytics capabilities.” Scouting administrator Hendrik Herz and baseball ops assistant Chad Tatum have been appointed to the newly created roles of scouting analysts, wherein they will “evaluate amateur players for the draft using video, data and in-person evaluations.”