{"id":373713,"date":"2025-11-12T13:28:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T13:28:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/373713\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T13:28:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T13:28:14","slug":"yankees-fire-international-scouting-director-after-many-million-dollar-misses-sources","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/373713\/","title":{"rendered":"Yankees fire international scouting director after many million dollar misses: Sources"},"content":{"rendered":"

LAS VEGAS \u2014 The New York Yankees fired longtime international scouting director Donny Rowland earlier this offseason, three major-league sources confirmed to The Athletic. The sources, who were granted anonymity in order to speak freely, each pointed to the franchise\u2019s recent poor track record of turning big-money signings into impact major leaguers as a likely major contributing factor in the dismissal.<\/p>\n

Rowland, 62, spent 15 years in the role and 23 years overall in the Yankees organization. Rowland and general manager Brian Cashman<\/a> did not respond to messages Tuesday from The Athletic seeking comment. Francys Romero first reported the move.<\/p>\n

The team is still in the process of selecting Rowland\u2019s successor, the sources said.<\/p>\n

Although plenty of international prospects across the sport who received million dollar bonuses don\u2019t pan out, the Yankees have seen most of theirs bust over the past decade-plus, and several still in their system have underperformed expectations.<\/p>\n

In 2019, the Yankees gave outfielder Jasson Dom\u00ednguez a club-record $5.1 million signing bonus. This year as a rookie, he started as the team\u2019s primary left fielder, but became a part-time player late in the season. He finished with a .251 batting average, 10 home runs, 47 RBIs, 23 steals and a .718 OPS in 123 games. Where he fits in the Yankees\u2019 plans for 2026 remains unclear.<\/p>\n

Dom\u00ednguez, 22, may turn out to be the Yankees\u2019 best big-money-bonus success story in a while. Others either appear to have outlooks that are less rosy or have simply stalled out.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Jasson Dom\u00ednguez began his rookie season as the team\u2019s primary left fielder but ended it as a part-time player. (Al Bello \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

In August, the Yankees cut ties with one of their bigger bonus bets, releasing shortstop Alexander Vargas. They gave the Cuba native $2.5 million, the biggest bonus in their 2019 international class. At 23, Vargas started this season at High A and hit just .227 with one homer and a .633 OPS in 42 games at Double A before being released in August. The Cincinnati Reds picked him up, and he posted a .617 OPS in 19 games for them at High A.<\/p>\n

Outfielder Brando Mayea ($4.35 million, 2023) spent his third season in rookie ball at age 20 this year. Shortstop Roderick Arias ($4 million, 2022) posted a .640 OPS this year over 103 games in his first season in Low A at age 20. Shortstop Mani Cedeno ($2.5 million, 2025) hit .183 and struck out 76 times in 164 at-bats in the Dominican Summer League, though he is only 17.<\/p>\n

Hans Montero signed as a shortstop for $1.7 million in 2021. Of 89 games the 21-year-old played at Low A this season, 34 were at first base and none were at shortstop. Outfielder Raimfer Salinas ($1.85 million, 2017) played just 65 games at Low A with the organization. Salinas was suspended 80 games in 2023 after testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug. The Yankees released him that season and he hasn\u2019t played since.<\/p>\n

In 2014, the Yankees gave seven-figure bonuses to seven players: D\u00e9rmis Garcia ($3 million), Nelson Gomez ($2.25 million), Juan De Leon ($2 million), Jonathan Amundaray ($1.5 million), Wilkerman Garcia ($1.3 million), Miguel Flames (1.1 million) and Hoy Park ($1 million). Only two \u2014 Garcia and Park \u2014 reached the majors, playing a combined 108 games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS \u2014 The New York Yankees fired longtime international scouting director Donny Rowland earlier this offseason, three…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":373714,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[1266,2228,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-373713","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-mlb","9":"tag-new-york-yankees","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115536967826886925","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}