Chicago Cubs: Jason McLeod named Senior VP of Player Personnel

The Chicago Cubs named Jason McLeod their Senior VP of Player Personnel. Over the last eight seasons, McLeod has been tasked with overseeing amateur scouting and player development with the club.

The Chicago Cubs named Jason McLeod the Senior Vice President of Player Personnel, a step up from his previous role in the organization. He was in charge of overseeing amateur scouting and player development, but he will still keep the same type of skill set that he did with his previous job.

McLeod has drafted very well, especially hitters–and college hitters, at that. He had a hand in Kris Bryant, Kyle Schwarber, Ian Happ and Nico Hoerner. The one thing he has not done is to develop homegrown pitching. Adbert Alzolay and Braylin Marquez are coming up, but it is TBD if those guys are successful at the major league level.

Also, he’s been ‘wooed’ by other teams for a front-office position. The Minnesota Twins back in 2016 and the San Francisco Giants in 2018. But he’s turned those down, and many other offers down from teams looking to gain an edge in scouting. Theo Epstein praised McLeod for the work he’s done in the organization.

"“Jason has made immense contributions to the organization in his eight years supervising Amateur Scouting and Player Development, “He helped build and grow two departments that were crucial in the Cubs’ rebuild, championship and run of sustained success. As his career has evolved, Jason is prepared for new challenges at the Major League level, where his strengths in evaluation, development and culture-building will be quite impactful.” h/t Rob Schaefer, NBC Sports Chicago"

McLeod has taken some flack for not developing pitching. But that’s not what they’re about, not originally. The Chicago Cubs took a ‘hitters heavy’ draft in the early days and then spending their later draft picks on pitchers. And it’s paid off as they’ve brought five of the last seven picks up to the major leagues. The only other three were pitchers (Ryan Jensen in 2019, Brendon Little in 2017 ) and Alex Lange in 2017 that was traded to the Detroit Tigers.

McLeod was high on the opportunity to be more involved with the team. He’s built a solid team of scouts, and he’s ready to turn it over to them.

"“I’m excited for this new opportunity in player personnel with the Cubs, especially for the chance to be more involved with the major league team,” McLeod said. “We’ve built a tremendous group of scouts and player development staff who work tirelessly to acquire and develop the next generation of great Cubs players.  I’m proud of the progress we have made, and I’m thankful for the contributions of this talented group. The work continues for all of us to realize our singular goal: win another World Series championship.”"

McLeod is ready to take on his new role as VP of Player Personnel, and he’s looking forward to it. Now to see who they replace him with.