According to Keith Law of ESPN, the Milwaukee Brewers may be making some changes to the front office roles. Law reported earlier on Twitter that he has heard that Tod Johnson, the club’s Assistant Director of Amateur Scouting and Baseball Research, is being promoted to scouting director. Law additionally adds that Ray Montgomery has already been promoted, and indeed he is listed as the “Vice President - Amateur Scouting / Special Assistant to the G.M.” according to the Brewers Front Office web page.
According to his LinkedIn page, Johnson is a graduate of Cal-Poly San Luis Obispo and has a masters degree in business administration from UC-Davis. After spending five years at Microsoft, he was hired by the Brewers to work in IT in 2007. According to this story from Baseball America, Johnson showed a “knack for statistical analysis” and the Brewers sent him to Scout School in 2008. Johnson’s role with the Brewers included statistical analysis of collegiate players. He spent about a year working as a Baseball Systems Architect for the Padres 2010-2011 before being hired back by the Brewers as Assistant Director of Baseball Research, with Amateur Scouting added to that title in November of 2012.
This move allows Ray Montgomery to receive a more prestigious title within the front office (and presumably, a higher salary) that will hopefully sway him to continue to stay with Milwaukee for the foreseeable future rather than pursue any General Manager positions that become available. Montgomery’s past two drafts since being hired back by Milwaukee have both received very positive reviews and he’s very respected throughout the game for his work in amateur scouting. At the same time, the club will be able to reward a worthy employee in Johnson who has worked his way up through the front office ranks with the club and that David Stearns and the rest of the management staff must view rather highly.