Padres Hire Another Former Rangers Staff Member

The Padres hired former MLB player and recent Rangers area scout Chris Kemp as their Director of International Scouting this week. The move is another for new GM A.J. Preller in an attempt to beef up the Padres capitalizing on his own strengths of scouting and player development. In Chris Kemp, they get a former Junior College World Series player and coach in addition to his recent scouting duties for the Rangers.

It is certainly quite the promotion for a guy used to covering a couple of states to be responsible for the entire world, but another sign as the front office gets younger that the Padres are actually changing directions instead of just plowing the same course with different people. Kemp has spent his entire professional baseball career with the Rangers, and in 2007 even hit .291 in 43 games for the minor league Clinton Lumberkings. Yet, after just two seasons in the minors, he changed directions. He went back to college – this time as a coach – and again led a team of his to the Junior College World Series.

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When A.J. Preller was hired, it came with restrictions on who he could and could not hire from the Rangers front office. Apparently Kemp wasn’t on that list, but it still shows Preller’s personality pull to bring a guy like Kemp from the only organization he has known to come take over an important position for the Padres.

With the Padres already showing signs of success internationally, from Odrisamer Despaigne to Everth Cabrera and Rymer Liriano, more is always better. Scouting internationally can lead to those quick and usually cheap successes. While the Padres may not be starting a baseball tournament in India like the movie Million Dollar Arm anytime soon, as baseball continues to expand abroad, it will get more important for the Padres to gain a strong reputation for fair international dealings. The Dodgers have long been admired for their international scouting in the Dominican Republic for finds like Pedro Martinez and Adrian Beltre who signed when he was 16, and it is certainly the hope that Kemp can bring international success to the Padres.