As he went through the interview circuit in the days that followed the 2020 MLB Draft, Giants scouting director Michael Holmes joked a few times that he needed to catch up on sleep. But Holmes knows there's only so much catching up scouts can do.
As cities around the country have reopened, summer baseball tournaments have returned, albeit with a much smaller footprint. MLB recently loosened restrictions on scouting that were put in place because of COVID-19, allowing the Giants and other teams to start diving into preparation for the 2021 draft.
That's a relief for scouts, many of whom across the industry were furloughed or dealt with pay cuts. On last week's Chalk Talk at Home, president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi said Giants scouts didn't have to deal with that uncertainty.
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SIGN UP HERE "We've retained all of our scouts for the full season," Zaidi said. "That was a decision made by ownership, which obviously we feel really good about and I know (Holmes) is excited to potentially get his guys back out to do summer work as some of these events start.
"We're hoping it's an active summer for our scouts and that they're able to put in the work that they want to do."
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Zaidi also confirmed to NBC Sports Bay Area that the Giants will retain their minor league coaches and player development staffers through at least Dec. 31, allowing some peace of mind in a year that has been full of furloughs across the game. There generally is a lot of movement in those jobs at the end of the season, but nobody quite knows what the fall of 2020 will look like from a baseball standpoint.
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The Giants are hopeful that they can continue building even as the sport goes through unprecedented times. Holmes recently said that the early preparation for the 2020 draft was as thorough as he had seen, and it'll be important for scouts to get out this summer and see next year's top prospects play with wood bats and against better competition.
Last week, MLB informed clubs that they can have up to three scouts at summer events.
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While it's unclear what minor league coaches and instructors will be able to do in 2020, the Giants remain hopeful that some apparatus will be put in place to help top prospects develop. They plan to have several on their taxi squad, and it's possible the Arizona Fall League will be expanded and teams will be allowed to have additional instructional camps.
The A's and Angels took heat around the game for plans to furlough scouts after the draft, but both teams reversed course last week.