Yankees fire international scouting director Donny Rowland

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The New York Yankees have fired Donny Rowland, their director of international scouting for the last 15 seasons.

Rowland, who turns 63 next month, had been with the Yankees for 23 seasons overall. Several of the Yankees’ international prospects who received large bonuses failed to advance and hold starting big league jobs.

“His contract had expired,” general manager Brian Cashman said Wednesday during a Zoom news conference. “I made the difficult decision to look for a different lead voice in that chair.”

Cashman did not attend the general managers meetings in Las Vegas and spoke to reporters remotely,

After losing to Toronto in an AL Division Series, the Yankees’ top priority is to re-sign outfielder/infielder Cody Bellinger, who became a free agent.

“It’s pretty early in the process but I said it before and I’ll say it again: Of course, we’d like to have him back,” Cashman said.

Obtained from the Chicago Cubs last offseason, the 30-year-old Bellinger hit .272 with 29 homers and 98 RBIs.

“Among all the free-agent outfielders, he was the top gun of the class,” his agent, Scott Boras, said at the GM meetings. “He was defensively certainly a versatile viper in the outfield, playing both first base and all three outfield positions. And he was kind of offensively a middle-of-the-lineup Merlin.”

New York made $22,025,000 qualifying offers to Bellinger, who is sure to reject it, and to outfielder Trent Grisham.

“We’d be happy if he accepted and came back,” Cashman said of Grisham.

New York hasn’t decided whether it will offer a long-term contract to All-Star second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr., who can become a free agent after the 2026 season. The Yankees headed off free agency in 2019 by giving a $70 million, seven-year contract to outfielder Aaron Hicks and a $40 million, four-year deal to pitcher Luis Severino, who both underperformed.

Cashman said he spoke Wednesday with Chisholm’s agent, Brodie Van Wagenen.

“I’m not sure how that will play out,” Cashman said. “Do you make a decision now or do you wait? You’ve seen our past, how that’s played out to some degree.”

Cashman said power-hitting, strikeout-prone outfield prospect Spencer Jones has been working out at Yankee Stadium and could have a big league role next year. George Lombard Jr., a 20-year-old infielder, appears less likely.

“I wouldn’t think ‘26 is on the horizon, but I wouldn’t rule out at some point in ’26 at the same time,” Cashman said.

He also reacted to comments by manager Aaron Boone, who said on a “Talkin’ Yankees” podcast on Nov. 4 “if you look in the American League East, like the way, for example, I run a game, I’m not even saying it’s good or bad but we’re probably the most least analytical in-game team there is and I’m positive of that.”

“I just think he’s trying to I guess bring the fans into the dugout with the commentary constantly about the `front office is pulling the strings and every move seems to be the analytic department telling him what to do and everything’s pre-scripted.’ None of that’s true,” Cashman said. “That was his answer to the question of being constantly challenged and being accused of being a puppet and running a show that’s not designed by him. … He’ll definitely make decisions that our analytics department wouldn’t agree with, but they’re not managing the team. And sometimes they work out for us to our benefit and sometimes they don’t.”

Cashman defended New York’s home run-dependent lineup construction in a year Toronto won the AL East and reached Game 7 of the World Series led by contact hitters. The Yankees topped the major leagues with 274 homers and scored a big league-high 50.2% of their runs on longballs, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

“The team that outhomers the other team in the postseason series goes on to typically win 90% of the time,” Cashman said. “So home runs are a good thing, not a bad thing, but strikeouts are a bad thing. Putting the ball in play is a good thing because a lot can happen, but you don’t want to put the ball in play with double plays. So strikeouts are bad, double plays are bad. Everything else is obviously good.”

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