Mets Fire Scouting Director Rudy Terrasas

As first reported by Jon Heyman, the Mets have fired Rudy Terrasas, their director of amateur scouting since 2006. Terrasas had one year remaining on his contract.

As anyone who's followed my draft coverage here can guess, I have not been an admirer of Terrasas's work. I liked his first two selections in 2006 (pitchers Kevin Mulvey and Joe Smith), but the rest of the draft was a huge head-scratcher for me, beginning with John Holdzkom, who is still floundering in the low minors after a series of injuries. And while 2006's draft was merely confusing, 2007's was an obvious disaster, as the team selected the now-infamous "Ruff" Eddie Kunz, a college reliever with a so-so track record, with their first selection.

From that point forward, it was very much a mixed bag with Terrasas, who saw some guys succeed against expectations and others sink immediately. He drafted Ike Davis, Reese Havens, Kirk Nieuwenhuis, and Sean Ratliff in 2008, but also drafted Brad Holt and Dock Doyle (though I liked both selections at the time). I thought that Terrasas had perhaps turned a corner, but the 2009 draft was yet another unmitigated catastrophe, highlighted by the fifth-round selection of Damien Magnifico, a pitcher with only one asset and a price tag nobody wanted. Some other selections I didn't mind as much, but the team still walked away without first-, fifth, or sixth-round picks. Much of that falls on Terrasas's shoulders. The early results for the 2010 draft are more positive, but the oddness of the draft is startling, due to Terrasas's reliance on older college players with some degree of talent but poor track records.

In some ways, Terrasas was dealt a harsh hand. The Mets clearly didn't want to spend on the draft, and that makes any director's job more difficult. But there are ways to have successful cheap drafts, and I don't think Terrasas was able to do enough with even the marginal resources he possessed. It's not surprising at all to see him shipped out.

No word yet on who his replacement will be. There's a possibility that Paul DePodesta will take direct control over the situation, but he's untested in such a role and might be best served in a more supervisory capacity. Expect lots of speculation that Oakland's prodigal son Grady Fuson will take the job. Truth be told, I'm not terribly impressed with his recent work either, so I'd probably prefer a different face. Either way, I think the Mets' scouting department got a little better today.