Scouts Life (III): Hansel Izquierdo
After a 15-seasons career, Hansel found his path in scouting.
I have always heard that one lives many lives within the same one. This thought can be attributed to almost all human beings, especially those who have developed different stages in their lives, such as Hansel Izquierdo. Many years after the end of a 15-season career in professional baseball, the Havana native began scouting with the Chicago Cubs, a second career in which he has been working for almost a decade now.
In 1994, he was part of the Cuban youth team to the World Championship in Connecticut, but during a stopover at the Miami airport, he changed the destiny of his life together with his friend Michael Tejera. Together with his uncle and Tejera, Hansel ran through the airport until he saw a policeman and told him, “Asylum, asylum!” to start a new life.
Izquierdo, 47 years old and a native of Havana, played in the Major Leagues in 2002 with the Florida Marlins and, although that was his only season in the “Show”, he later pitched in the Minor Leagues with the Montreal Expos, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, New York Yankees, Pittsburgh Pirates, as well as in the winter and summer circuits of Mexico, Puerto Rico, Taiwan, and the Independent Leagues. His service record after 2002 resembles that of a baseball globetrotter. That same experience was what the Chicago Cubs hired him for in 2016 when they assigned him as an area scout for the Cuban market.
Hansel constantly travels to Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela, Panama, the Dominican Republic, or the Bahamas to recruit talent for the 2016 World Series champions. During the last five years, we have met at various tryouts or presentations of Cuban baseball players. His reports have helped sign players with Major League potential, and I have witnessed his growth within this complex scouting ecosystem.
He once confessed to me that he enjoyed few things more than scouting. The story of how he came to this position, gives away a bit of that sentiment. In the winter of 2015, Hansel traveled to San Diego where the Winter Meetings between team owners were being held at the Marriot Marquis Hotel. This type of meeting not only serves for trade discussion among the 30 organizations, but also owners, managers, and scouting directors attend for 4 days to discuss various issues within the business of baseball.
That summer, Hansel Izquierdo went to San Diego with a firm determination to find a job. “I met a lot of baseball people and I was looking for an opportunity, no matter if it was in scouting or player development as a coach,” Hansel told me in one of our meetings in 2021.
It is a space where a person can dedicate 10 minutes or just two to you. Hansel chatted and handed out his resume to as many people as he could find in his path. Several months after his bold appearance at the Winter Meetings, the Chicago Cubs responded. Not only was Hansel an experienced addition as a player, but he was hired because of his proximity to and knowledge of the Cuban market.
So, it was scouting that chose Hansel Izquierdo, and not otherwise. He is our guest in the third installment of the Scouts Life series.
How and why did you become interested in scouting? I understand that you used to train Cuban pitchers to sign as professionals. Why did you decide to enter the world of talent evaluation?
Honestly, it was an opportunity to get back into the system that I was looking for. It was Louie Eljaua, Vice President of International Scouting for the Chicago Cubs, and Alex Suarez, Senior Director of International Player Development and Operations, who gave me the opportunity. Scouting is another angle, another branch of the interesting game of baseball.
Tell me about this job, a lot of travel, sometimes far from family, how complicated is it and do you think it gets the recognition it deserves from people?
That is the most difficult part of the game for me, the time you spend away from your family. I believe that people's recognition comes from within, from the successes you are having, but it acquires more value when it comes from all those people who have dedicated a great part of their lives to the game.
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You were a Major League pitcher, what do you think about analytics today and how has scouting changed from your playing days to now?
Analytics is a tool that helps us to collect more in-depth information on players and the more information we have, the better. Scouting has changed a lot because of that, evaluation now is much deeper.
Mention your current functions with the Chicago Cubs.
First, I feel the need to express the gratitude I feel towards Alex Suarez and Louie Eljaua for believing in me from day one. Louie is one of the most successful scouts in the history of this great sport and Alex has a high IQ, but he has also become a great scout and baseball man. To the Chicago Cubs organization, for the opportunity and for the blessing of belonging to this great franchise —and I say this with a good level of humility— for the learning and the responsibility. My position in the organization is in charge of the evaluation of Cuban players. When you love your profession, you always want to improve and do a little more, but there is a learning process in this gallant game, which never ends. It is the nature of this intuitive game.
Tell me about the process of a signing. You see a talent, you send a report, what is the process like to get a professional player signed?
There is a detailed process for signing a player. First, the scout sees that player and evaluates him from his point of view. If he believes that his tools could be developed to one day help the team in the Major Leagues, he presents him to his superiors in the organization, and from there, a ranking list is created.
According to the results of my studies and data, between 15% and 20% of the players who leave Cuba are signing professional agreements, a low figure. Why do you think this is?