Sahlen Field – Toronto Blue Jays. (2021, July). Flickr.com. https://www.flickr.com/photos/192355779@N02/51324392896
This obituary for Epy Guerrero is an important tribute to someone who changed the trajectory of Major League Baseball forever. Guerrero advocated for the MLB to invest in Dominican talent and worked as the Toronto Blue Jays’ chief Latin American scout from 1978 to 1995. The Blue Jays were the second MLB team to create a baseball academy in the Dominican Republic when theirs opened in 1987.
Many Dominican players credit Guerrero for encouraging the development of systems that could better prepare Dominican players for the stress and change that came with entering the Major League. This was in contrast to the existing scouting strategy in the country throughout the 1960s which brought ill-prepared young men to play a sport in a country they had no familiarity or time for adjustment with, resulting in many players who reached the level quickly exiting.
Guerrero had a huge impact on the sport and its diversity, ushering in a new age of star players that would change the league forever. Some of the Toronto Blue Jays’ brightest players of the 1980s and 1990s like Carlos Delgado and Tony Fernández were scouted by Guerrero. His death in 2013 was a moment for the sport that allowed players and staff at all levels of the game to reflect on advances that had been made for Dominican players, in part thanks to Guerrero.
After the United States, the country that develops and brings the most talent to the majors and to the minors is the Dominican Republic, and he was one of the first guys to put the infrastructure in place to get all that talent up here, so his legacy is huge just with that,” said Jays right fielder Jose Bautista, who hails from the Dominican. Gillick said Guerrero had a special instinct for identifying players that would become productive major-leaguers, not only based on their skills, but also on their ability to adjust to a new culture in North America.
Kennedy, Brendan. “Legendary Blue Jays scout Epy Guerrero dies.” Toronto Star. May 23, 2013.
Kennedy, Brendan. 2013. “Legendary Blue Jays Scout Epy Guerrero Dies.” Thestar.Com. May 23, 2013. https://www.thestar.com/sports/bluejays/2013/05/23/legendary_blue_jays_scout_epy_guerrero_dies.html.