Braves News: Atlanta Braves hire Dean Decillis as special assistant
By Eric Cole
With the departure of Dana Brown when he took the Houston Astros' general manager position, the Atlanta Braves had themselves a bit of a void when it came to leadership of the Braves' scouting department. While the team still had assistant scouting direction Ronit Shah who is very capable, there was just one less set of experienced eyes that could zoom out and look at the big picture.
As a result, general manager Alex Anthopoulos decided to bring in some help while also giving some love to the now much more active international side of the Braves scouting department.
Sources: The Atlanta Braves are hiring Dean Decillis as special assistant to the general manager. Decillis was a special assignment scout with the Blue Jays and played a key role in scouting Alejandro Kirk, among other players.
— Robert Murray (@ByRobertMurray) February 2, 2023
With the addition of Dean Decillis, the Braves get a guy that Alex Anthopoulos is comfortable with while also adding some experience and gravitas to the international scouting side of things. Decillis is a veteran scout with experience in multiple organizations including the Toronto Blue Jays.
Decillis will certainly help out when it comes to all sides of amateur scouting (he is particularly good at scouting hitters), our sources seem to indicate that his primary function is going to be getting the international scouting department where the Braves want it to be now that the Braves' no longer have any restrictions/sanctions placed upon them.
We can still expect Ronit Shah to be the main point person leading up to the draft, however, and that probably means the draft strategy for 2023 will remain similar. As we have seen, the Braves feel very comfortable picking pitchers early in the draft as they feel as though they can project them the best. It will be very interesting to see if that trend continues in this year's upcoming draft.
It may also be a couple of years before we see the real fruits in the international free agent market from Decillis joining the organization. These players are spoken for so early on that there could easily be a lag in Decillis' ability to get them into the fold...and that doesn't even consider the possibility of an international draft in the future.