Tyrone Brooks, who has served as the Pittsburgh Pirates' Director of Player Personnel since 2010, has been hired by MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred to become the Senior Director of the league's new Front Office and Field Staff Diversity Pipeline Program.
Brooks was a candidate for the Milwaukee Brewers' vacant general manager position earlier in the offseason, but instead of fulfilling that dream of his, he'll now work for the Office of the Commissioner. The MLB's new program will "seek to identify, develop and grow the pool of qualified minority and female candidates for on-field and baseball operations positions throughout the industry," according to the MLB Communications Twitter account.
Manfred has expressed the importance of diversifying the work force in the MLB, specifically in front offices and in managerial positions. The lack of minorities and females in executive positions and/or in the dugout has been a cause for concern as of late and Manfred has pledged to change that.
Here's the MLB's full statement on Brooks.
According to the statement, Brooks will report to the league's Chief Legal Officer, Dan Halem and will also be responsible for briefing the Ownership Diversity Committee at the owners meetings.
"Brooks, 42, is the founder of the Baseball Industry Network, which is comprised of approximately 28,000 members on the professional networking tool LinkedIn," the league wrote.
Brooks spent 11 years working in the Atlanta Braves organization and another three working in the Cleveland Indians organization before landing in Pittsburgh. In Atlanta he worked as a Baseball Operations Assistant, Area Scouting Supervisor, Assistant Director of Player Personnel and Director of Baseball. He then spent 2007-2009 working as a Professional Scout with the Indians.
In his most recent role with the Pirates, he assisted general manager Neal Huntington "in all aspects of Baseball Operations including rules compliance, arbitration preparation, transactions, budgeting and contract negotiations" and also provided "recommendations regarding personnel, strategic planning and decision making for the Baseball Operations department," according to the Pirates' website.
Brooks graduated from the University of Maryland at College Park and double-majored in Accounting and Marketing.
